The Weight of the World (7 page)

He
arrived on Devon’s Door with the aluminum rose in hand. He wasn’t
sure how to dress or if she had plans, so he had settled on a new
pair of jeans and a collared, short-sleeved shirt and made plans but
no reservations.

Mr.
Valentine opened the door. He looked down at Evan and past him to the
bike propped up against the picket fence. A small smile slithered
onto his lips. “You’re here for Devon?”

“
Yes,
sir,” Evan said. His voice was caught, tense, in his throat.

“
Okay
then.” He turned over his shoulder and bellowed up the stairs,
“Devon, there’s a boy here.”

Devon
appeared at the top of the stairs in a pair of skinny jeans and red
heals. She had red fitted t-shirt on with a white half-jacket over
it. He had seen her wear the shirt, complete with plunging v-neck, to
school before. He wondered if she usually got out of the house in it
because she put that jacket on until she was out the door.

“
What
movie are we seeing?” she asked as she grabbed her purse from a
hook by the door.

“
Uh,
I thought I’d let you pick,” Evan said. She looked amazing. Her
long blonde hair was let down and brushed out. She had a hint of
sparkle on her lips and eyes. Evan was glad he’d worn jeans. “Oh,
this is for you,” he said, remembering his gift.

The
stem had been fashioned from green ginger ale cans and the red petals
still showed the remains of a Coca Cola logo. Devon took the rose and
twirled it in her hand. “This is cool. Where did you find it?”

“
Made
it,” he said.

Devon
kissed her father on the cheek and pushed Evan out onto the doorstep.
She closed the door and looked, disappointed, when she saw his bike.

“
We’re
taking my car,” she said, digging through her purse and extracting
her keys.

Evan
got into the passenger seat of the little car. The top was up on the
convertible beamer. He buckled himself in and wiped his sweaty palms
on the knees of his jeans. Devon checked her lip gloss in the mirror
and took off her half-jacket.

“
If
I’m driving, you’re paying,” she said.

“
Of
course,” Evan replied.

Devon
started the car. She had a custom sound system and when the engine
roared to life, the speakers started blasting high energy Euro-Pop.
The squeaky, breathy singer belted a tune about dancing until the
world ended. Occasionally a man who sounded like he dubbed trailers
for action movies would interject a rhyming catch phrase.

Devon
pulled out of the driveway. When she was certain that her car could
not be seen from the windows of her house, she punched the gas pedal.
Evan held on tight. When they pulled up to the Cinema Planet, he felt
like he could breathe again.

They
eventually decided to see a romantic movie based on some best-selling
novel. There was a lot of PG13 sex and someone died at the end. Devon
spent most of the hour and twenty-six minutes crying. Evan just liked
the steamy parts; he was a sixteen year-old boy, after all.

When
the movie ended they went to get Italian food. Evan was glad his dad
had given him some money because Devon had an appetizer and a
dessert.

It
started to rain on their drive home from the restaurant. By the time
they were in his development it had turned into a torrential
downpour. The rain was beating so hard on the windshield that the
wipers couldn’t brush away the water fast enough to see. The sound
blended into a thunderous hum.

“
Screw
it,” Devon muttered as she pulled over. “I can’t see a thing.”

“
What’s
with all this rain?” Evan said. He turned off her radio (he could
barely hear it anyway) and listened to the rain hitting the canvas
roof of the car. “The weather said sunny and eighty-five.”

“
The
weather was wrong.” She brushed her hair back and looked at Evan.
“Thanks for helping me get out and do something.”

“
It’s
not a problem,” Evan said. Just being seen in public with someone
as gorgeous as Devon was reward enough to Evan.

They
fell quiet. Evan tried to look out the window. “That rose,” he
said, “I didn’t use glue or solder or anything. I melted it with
my hands.”

“
Show
me.” Devon started digging in the center console for change. She
gave him a handful of pennies. Evan had been playing with this for
hours and he was pretty good at it now. He pressed the stack of coins
between his palms. They slowly melted and flattened into a disc. He
had done it too fast in his bedroom when Devon had called. Now he
could take it slow and steady.

Devon
watched quietly while he worked. His method was very careful and
logical. When he was done he handed her a spiral made of melted down
copper and nickel.

“
Here,”
he said. “That one’s not very good. I think melting those was
technically illegal.”

“
It’s
beautiful, Evan.”

He
chewed on the inside of his lip. “I’m sorry some catty girl
posted that blog about you.”

“
How
do you know it’s a girl?”

Evan
suppressed a laugh. “I-- well-- guys don’t usually care about
gossip.”

Devon
frowned, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She shifted in her
seat. The rain filled the silence. “They act like it’s a game.
I’m pregnant.”

“
I
know.”

“
It
isn’t just who Zach cheated on June with or who Nick is chasing
this week. It’s a baby.” Evan couldn’t tell for sure in the
glow of the dashboard light, but he was pretty sure that Devon was
crying now.

“
Devon,
if--”

She
didn’t give him a chance to say anything. She kissed him. Evan’s
mind was blank. He was five the last time he’d kissed a girl. This
was far superior to that peck in his mother’s rosebushes from the
next-door-neighbor.

Devon’s
fingers curled around the collar of his shirt. She pulled him closer.
Tastes of ancient memories flickered in his brain. He remembered
little details like the way silk draped across her back or the scent
of her hair with flowers in it.

She,
Devon Valentine, Aphrodite, was his gift from Zeus. She was the
greatest gift any man or god had ever received.

Devon
pulled away. Her lips were more pink and tempting now, swollen from
the intense kiss. Evan couldn’t think about anything but those
lips. They were perfect, soft and plump. The lower lip looked like a
rose petal.

She’d
stopped crying. Hormones were funny like that. “Make love to me,”
she whispered.

Evan
knew that was a bad idea. He opened his mouth to tell her so, but she
kissed him again. It felt like his mind was being occupied by two
people. Evan, the responsible Boy Scout, was shouting
No!
She’s hormonal. This is a bad idea. This is your first date.
Evan, the boy who had just been kissed by a Goddess, tugged her
t-shirt up over her head.

Devon
climbed over the center console and pushed Evan back until his head
bumped the window. This was going way too fast for him, but he
couldn’t bring himself to object as she unbuttoned his collar. She
was surprised to find that, hidden under long sleeves, Evan's arms
were cut. She assumed it was from swinging a hammer every second of
his free time. The definition carried into his shoulders and neck and
ended there. The rest of Evan's torso was as pale and shapeless as
Devon would have guessed.

Her
fingers touched the small round scars all over his arm. They were
marks from old cigarette burns. She didn’t ask questions, though
she noted with sadness that he had many more than Frank.

Evan
was inexperienced and awkward. He had terrible stamina. Devon might
have been more disappointed if she didn’t think it was cute. The
complications of passion in the confines of a car covered for his
inadequacies. The low ceiling, the protruding stick shift, and the
glove box that wouldn't stay closed made the overall experience
mutually difficult.

From
first kiss to first sexual experience, it was a lot for Evan to
process in one night.

The
hammering of rain on the roof of the car persisted.

“
We--
we probably shouldn’t have done that,” Evan said as he fastened
his pants.

“
It’s
okay. I can’t get pregnant again.”

“
That’s
not really the point,” he mumbled. “This is our first date. It’s
all really fast.”

“
Then
why didn’t you stop me?” Devon sounded hurt. Evan was worried
that she’d cry again. She started dressing herself quickly.

“
I--
I don’t know. You kissed me so I just did what you told me to.”

Devon
slid back into her seat and put the car in drive. The rain had slowed
just enough to move again.

“
It’s
okay,” Evan said, trying to reassure her. “I liked it.”

She
didn’t say anything.

“
I
mean it,” Evan said. He buttoned his shirt back up. “It was
great. I mean... you were...” Evan wasn’t sure there were words
to describe how amazing and beautiful she was.

Devon
smirked just a little.

“
I’m
sorry I wasn’t very good,” he added.

“
We
can work on it,” she said, pulling up to his driveway. “It’s
too wet. I’ll bring you your bike tomorrow.”

Evan
nodded and fumbled with the door handle. “Okay. Well... bye.” He
slipped on the slick grass outside the car and stumbled. “I’m
okay,” he stuttered. “Bye.”

Evan
closed the door and watched Devon pull away. Not even her flirtiest
smile could relieve the discomfort in the pit of his stomach. Evan
stood in the rain. His thoughts went to a recent dream. Frank. She
was having Frank’s baby. Did he really want to let himself fall in
love with her?

“
We
cannot learn without pain.
”

-Aristotle

v.

The
King of the Gods took his time relaxing

and
observing the flowers in the garden.

In
his mind, he put aside the woes of

his
troubled marriage.

But
as he walked along the garden pathway,

a
pressure built within his skull behind his eyes

until
the pain left him prostrate on the path,

unable
to scream.

It
was in his good fortune that Hephaestus,

an
unambitious and compassionate god,

was
the one to find him in this weakened state.

Zeus
pleaded with him.

Knowing
that mortal blows were nothing to Gods,

Hephaestus
raised his axe high over his head

and
brought it down to cleave apart Zeus' skull

and
relieve the pain.

The
silver mist that poured from the gaping wound

quickly
swelled to a hasty spinning tempest.

The
whirlwind of dense thought burgeoned and shifted