Chapter Three: Aurora hears a voice telling her a story. Where do you think the voice is coming from? Why do you think the voice has chosen Aurora?
Callie
Chapter Four
The following morning, I slipped the necklace around my neck hopeful that it would bring me luck on my job hunt. Between interviews, I made time to visit my local library.
A gentle spring breeze escorted me through the electronic doors. Inside fluorescent lights met the flash of computer screens and book spines painted the walls with colour.
At a wall of bookshelves, a bearded man wearing khaki shorts with wool socks in well-worn hiking boots knelt to claim a copy of Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.
Turning left, I entered an area dominated by several rows of cubicles. Air vibrated with the click of fingers on keyboards. I found an unoccupied computer, logged onto a search engine, and typed ‘image: two snakes twisted around a pin’.
‘The Asclepius, Calliope’s symbol, is often confused with the symbol for the medical profession... Calliope it the eldest of the Greek Muses. She presides over eloquence and epic poetry.’
At the end of the erudite article, I was tempted to comment: And Callie loves to entertain her victims with stories, far too late at night.
On the way out of the library, I passed a group of teenagers gathered around a rectangular table. One of them in a denim button-down under a pink cable cardigan read aloud to the others from a black binder.
(click the link to listen and read this story)
When she was done reading, her friends giggled and she blushed. She adjusted the pendant that hung from her necklace before she closed her binder.
I feigned interest in a box of fifty-cent paperbacks so I could continue to listen.
A muddle of chatter spread over the table. All grew quiet when a girl dressed in black, sitting on the opposite side of the table, pulled a piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans. One hand held onto the pendant on her necklace as she read.
(click the link to listen and read this story)
I headed for the door before they caught me standing there. As I passed the table, I noticed that every one of the girls wore a necklace with the pendant. Did Callie visit all of them?
So the necklace is a vessel in which Calliope, a Greek Muse, communicates with writers. Knowing this, would you wear the necklace? What does Aurora do?
Are you following me?
