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out too soon,
eh?”
    Nick nodded.
    Cruz turned back to his
office, muttering to himself, “Now what was I doing out here?”
    Nick turned back to his locker
and grabbed his shorts. He would shower in his dorm. He wanted to get
out of here as fast as he could.

“ Cure sometimes, treat
often, comfort always.”
    -Hippocrates

    vii.

    Asclepius, son of the god
Apollo,
    was known across the land
for his healing arts.
    And though he brought much
glory to his father,
    he soon crossed a line.

    It was of great importance
that mortals should—
    upon reaching the end of
their time—pass on.
    Asclepius had learned to
cure even death,
    and for it he died.

    It fell to Zeus to strike
him down with lightning,
    even though he admired the
human man.
    So when Apollo claimed the
corpse of his son,
    Lord Zeus allowed it.

    The sun god took a cup of
sacred nectar
    and poured it past the lips
of Asclepius.
    Then he fixed his broken
body with the light
    of his healing hands.

    When Asclepius then lifted
his eyelids,
    the eyes that now gazed
upon Mount Olympus
    were the shining eyes of an
immortal god,
    god of medicine.

“ To love and be loved is
everything.”
    -Greek Proverb

    VII.

    The house was too quiet. The
wooden floors in Jason Livingstone's home were old and made with
large, stained planks that had warped and shifted in the humidity of
south Florida. The place had always creaked. There was a pleasant
squeaking every time his children ran across the living room. Even
the floor under the carpet in the utility room squeaked. He had
gotten used to the sound like little mice constantly filling his
house in the daytime. Now it was silent except for the pounding rain
outside. The thunderstorm that raged—one that had been forecast,
not one that Zach had caused—was threatening to become a tropical
storm.
    The kids were out of state,
staying with Jason's father. Penny was in Haley's room, camped on the
pull-out mattress that normally hid under Haley's bed. He hadn't seen
her since breakfast, when she had popped out to claim a toaster
pastry and then vanished into the room. That was sixteen hours ago.
He wanted to give her plenty of space, but the silence was eating at
him.
    Jason
sat on the couch, reading a Game
of Thrones book. He was just past the point where the TV series had left off for
the summer, but despite his curiosity, he couldn't focus. The rain
beat on the roof outside, and the constant noise reminded Jason that
the house he occupied was just a very small box in comparison to the
raging ire of mother nature outside. He was very small, and he was
very alone.
    Jason
slipped a bookmark into his book and set it down. He got up and
crossed the room, pleased to hear the squeak
squeak squeak of his old floors. He knocked gently on Haley's door. “Penny?” He
needed to hear signs of life.
    Penny opened the door. She
wasn't wearing any eyeliner around her pale blue eyes, which made
Jason suspect that she had washed it off because she had been crying.
    “ What do you like on your
pizza?” he asked.
    “ Pizza?”
    “ Yeah, I mean it's only four
thirty, but I figure it'll take the pizza guy time to get here in
this rain anyway, and if we wait too long it might be raining too
hard to get delivery.”
    “ Oh, uh…I like cheese.”
    “ Just cheese?”
    “ Mmhmm.”
    “ You don't want to live a
little, get pepperoni? Black olives? Spinach and tomato?”
    Penny shook her head. “Just
cheese.”
    “ Okay. Half cheese, half
meat lovers.”
    Jason went to the kitchen and
rooted through his basket of takeout menus. He wasn't one of those
single Dads that ordered pizza every night (he was a doctor, after
all, and he tried to cook healthy meals at home), but he did enjoy
the convenience of ordering out on Fridays. It was a nice reward at
the end of a work week. It had become ritual. After he placed the
call, he went to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer.
    Jason was just settling down
and finally getting his mind in a good place to