In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because then there's somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
Annabeth, Grover, Percy and Phaedra walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in their noses.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
But Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
"True." Phaedra responded.
"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
"Well, I have food and clothes...for me. And I have money. I kept my stuff like a smart person." Phaedra said.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-" Annabeth ignored her and told Percy
Did she just ignore me? Fine if they want to ignore me, they can starve. Actually, I'll feed Grover.
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" Percy retorted.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine." Annabeth said. Phaedra groaned in annoyance.
Can you guys stop this Romeo and Juliet shit? It's getting annoying.
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
"Ok Annabeth. Let's not be rude to Grover. He doesn't deserve that." Phaedra said, giving the girl a pointed look.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
They sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
Phaedra walked next to Annabeth. "What is your problem?" She asked
"What do you mean?" She responded.
"What's your problem with Percy? When he got here, you acted as if he was your saving grace and did a fucking 180."
"Our parents hate each other-" she was interrupted
"Let me stop you right there, Annabeth. You do realize that, had he not come here, you wouldn't be out of camp at all. He is the only reason why you are on a quest. You at least owe him some type of respect. Or be nice. Because he could have left your ass at camp and took some one else."
Annabeth looked away because she knows Phaedra is right.
"Get over yourself and be grateful you're here. Anyways, I have some money-"
"Wait, how do you have money?"
"Well, if you had been paying attention to what I was saying rather than playing tit for tat with Percy, you would have known." Phaedra said frustrated and she walked to be next to Percy.
Percy looked at her as she fell in line with him. "I'm sorry about Annabeth. I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave. If you hadn't come back, who knows what would have happened."
"We're a team, right?" He said with a smile.
Phaedra was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died...aside from
the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be me and Annabeth's only chance to see the real world."
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving us in almost total darkness. Phaedra couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" Percy asked her
"No...only short field trips. My mom-"
"Yeah, you don't really mention her."
"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."
Phaedra tried not to doubt it, but that was hard.
"You're pretty good with that dagger," Percy said.
"You think so?" She perked up, feeling better.
"Anybody who can cut a Fury like that, is okay by me."
She smiled brightly at the boy.
"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you...Something funny back on the bus..."
Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.
Instead of finding a path, Percy immediately slammed into a tree and got a
nice-size knot on his head.
Phaedra laughed and tried and failed to stifle her giggles once Percy glared at her.
After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, Phaedra started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. She could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food.
She realized she hadn't eaten anything
unhealthy since she'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where they lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue.
They kept walking until they saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees.
On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like she'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate
was impossible for her to read, because if there's anything worse for her dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To her, it looked like: ATNYU MES
GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.
What the Frick frack frickity fruck does that even say?
"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.
"I don't know," Annabeth said.
"Don't even think about asking me. I have no idea." Phaedra said when they looked at her.
Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
"Thanks Grover." Phaedra said to the satyr. He nodded in response.
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.
Percy crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey..." Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully.
"Snack bar," she agreed.
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
"See, I'm gonna go with Grover. Why, you ask? Because he's the only being here, who has the ability to sense monsters..." Phaedra said.
They ignored Grover and Phaedra who looked at each other wearily.
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
Um, so we not gonna listen to Grover who can sense monsters? Ok, when shit goes down, I'm only taking Grover. Yall can fend for yall selves.
They stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"Ok but maybe we should listen to Grover though? Once again, and hopefully for the last time, he can sense monsters!" Phaedra added and Grover nodded frantically.
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," Percy reminded him.
"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are...looking
at me." Grover warned.
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle
Eastern woman-at least, Phaedra assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but
that was about all Phaedra could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so the girl imagined she was a grandmother who had
once been a beautiful lady.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it
is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"They're...um..." Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans," Percy said. Phaedra gave the woman her best innocent smile as she tried to not give Percy a look.
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But,
my dears! Surely not!"
"We got separated from our caravan," Percy said. "Our circus caravan. The
ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may
have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're
lost. Is that food I smell?"
Love that he's straight to the point but he is such a terrible fucking liar.
"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is
a dining area."
I'm already suspicious of you.
They thanked her and went inside.
Annabeth muttered to Percy, "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?" he asked
"Your head is full of kelp." Phaedra told him.
"Hey!" He retorted.
"It's true." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.
The warehouse was filled with more statues-people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. Phaedra was thinking a person would had have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, she was thinking about how to get the hell out of there.
Phaedra noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, so she put a hand on his shoulder. She didn't notice the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow her. But, she did notice the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind then.
Ok, I need to grab Grover and get the fuck out of here.
All Phaedra cared about was finding the Godsdam exit. But, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
"Awesome," Percy said.
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."
"I do but i'm not wasting it here." Phaedra said quietly and Annabeth pinched her side. Phaedra slapped her arm.
Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No
money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, but Phaedra notice and it put her even more on edge.
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."
Run that back, turbo. We never introduced ourselves. This lady is creepy.
Their hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking.
"Yo, Grover. We need to get the hell up out of here. Now." She told the satyr sitting next to her.
"Yeah, I know. But we gotta get through to Percy and Annabeth."
"Do we really though? Cause it seems as though they didn't use their brains and see that something was wrong. Hell, she locked the fucking door."
"Yeah, but we need percy for the quest."
"Hades, you're right."
Before they knew it, she'd brought them plastic trays heaped with double
cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.
Percy was halfway through his burger before he remembered to breathe.
Annabeth slurped her shake.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
Phaedra ate carefully as if she was suspecting there to be poison in the food.
"What's that hissing noise?" Grover asked.
Phaedra listened, and she heard faint hissing and she looked at Grover with wide eyes. They had a silent conversation.
"You heard that too?" Grover asked
"Hell yeah." Phaedra said
Annabeth shook her head.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears."
"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."
You locked us in. How am I supposed to relax??
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched them eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at her when she couldn't see her face, but Phaedra was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and she figured the least she could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"So, you sell gnomes," Percy said, trying to sound interested.
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
"A lot of business on this road?"
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built...most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
Phaedra's neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at her. She turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than a person would see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"You make these statues yourself?" Phaedra asked.
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that Phaedra couldn't help feeling sorry for her. She knew it wasn't real.
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"
Is she finally using her brain?
"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a...a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."
Two sisters? Terrible accident? Aunty Em...M...Medusa...Medusa! How the fuck did I not notice this? Aunty Em is Medusa. Oh my gods...snakes. I can't do snakes. I'm terrified of snakes.
Phaedra's eyes met Annabeth and they nodded in agreement. "Percy?" Annabeth was shaking him to get his attention.
"Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." Phaedra said.
She sounded tense. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Phaedra stood up abruptly, pulling Annabeth with her and away from Medusa.
"We really should go." She said.
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"
"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
Phaedra shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"
"Sure we can," Percy said. "It's just a photo, Phaedra. What's the harm?"
"Yes, Phaedra," the woman purred. "No harm." Phaedra didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead them back out the front door, into the garden of statues.
Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girls in the middle, Percy next to Phaedra and Grover next to Annabeth."
"Not much light for a photo," Percy remarked.
"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"
"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.
Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"
Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
That is Uncle Ferdinand.
"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."
She still had no camera in her hands.
"Percy-" Annabeth said.
"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil...."
"Percy, something's wrong," Phaedra insisted.
"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head.
Oh fuck. I can't do snakes.
"Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed everyone off the bench.
Percy was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.
Phaedra booked it away from everyone. She could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another.
But Percy was too dazed to move.
Then she heard a strange, rasping sound. Percy's eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.
He almost looked higher, but Phaedra screamed, "No! Don't you fucking dare look any higher!"
More rasping-the sound of tiny snakes, right above Percy, from...from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Run!" Grover bleated. She heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
Percy wouldn't move for the life of him. He stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws.
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told him soothingly.
Don't you dare destroy his handsome face- I mean don't destroy his face.
She looked to one side and saw one of
those glass spheres people put in gardens-a gazing ball. She could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents. Phaedra almost screamed but a hand covered her mouth.
"Shush, we have to get to percy." She recognized that voice. Annabeth.
"How did Medusa die in the myth?" She asked Annabeth.
"Perseus cut off her head, which caused her-"
"Yeah, ok. That was enough. I didn't need her whole villain origin story." Annabeth rolled her eyes at Phaedra.
In the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right
now and rake open his face.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited them to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you
need not suffer."
Phaedra was too scared to say anything.
"No," Percy muttered.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"Percy!" Behind him, there was a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound
hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"
He turned, and there he was in the night
sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"
That finally jolted the kid into action. Knowing Grover, Phaedra was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail Percy. He dove to one side.
Thwack!
At first she figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
Percy scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.
"Come on like. Let's go to Percy." Annabeth told her frightened friend.
Ker-whack!
"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.
Right next to Percy, Annabeth and Phaedra's voices chorused, "Percy!"
He jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and both become visible. "You have to cut her head off."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. Phaedra rolled her eyes
"But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You-you've got a chance."
"Why can't Phaedra do it?"
"I can't do it because of my fear of snakes. It's an Apollo kid thing. A beef between Apollo and python. We are petrified of snakes. I can't do it. You need to." Phaedra told him.
"What? I can't-" he said before she cut him off.
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"
She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms
around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"
"Would you speak English?" he said
"I am!" She tossed him the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry," Pheadra told him. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
Percy took out his pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated
in his hand.
Percy walked away and Phaedra stayed where she was.
"You ok, hon?" Annabeth asked her.
"Yup, I'll be ok once that snake bitch is dead." She said back.
Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"
Poor Grover.
Medusa was about to lunge at him when Percy yelled, "Hey!"
He advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, he'd have a hard time defending himself.
But she let him approach-twenty feet, ten feet. That's weird.
The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
He hesitated. From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"
Medusa cackled. "Too late." She lunged at him with her talons. He slashed up with his sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Something fell to the ground next to Percy. It took all Phaedra's willpower not to look.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed.
"Mega-yuck."
Annabeth came up next to Percy, holding Phaedra's Hand, who still looked terrified, both their eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."
Very, very carefully, without looking down, Annabeth knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"Are you okay?" she asked Percy, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," he said. "Why didn't...why didn't the head evaporate?"
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"The Red Baron," Percy said. "Good job, man."
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
He snatched his shoes out of the air. Percy recapped his sword. Together, the Four of them stumbled back to the warehouse.
They found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. They plopped it on the table where we'd eaten
dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?
Annabeth flashed him an irritated look.
Oh my fucking Gods. Here we go again.
"Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably
reminded her of him."
Once again, girlfriend is not how I would describe it.
Percy's face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of his voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Phaedra. What's the harm?'"
"Forget it," Percy said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're-"
"Oh my Gods! Can you both please shut the hell up?!" They all looked at Phaedra in surprise. "Look it is both of your faults we met Medusa, ok? If only there was someone who had told you people that this place was sketchy...oh wait. There was! Me and Grover! Maybe if we had listened to the being who could smell fucking monsters we wouldn't be in this position in the first place. It was both of you. And Annabeth, I already told you to stop being mean. Get over yourself. You both ignored me when I said I had money because you were too busy with your Romeo and juliet shit to notice. Be happy you're here. Get over whatever imaginary beef you have with percy for the sake of everyone's sanity. Stop blaming each other for this because you're both to fucking blame." Phaedra got off her chest.
Everyone stared at her in shock that she yelled Annabeth looked the most shocked because Phaedra never really yelled at her like that.
Honestly, they both needed to get yelled at. This needs to stop.
"You two are giving me a migraine, and
satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?" Grover said to get the attention off of Phaedra.
Percy stared at the head. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR
BUSINESS!
He got up. "I'll be back."
"Percy," Annabeth called after him. "What are you-"
Percy came back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a
delivery slip:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
He poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
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