Chapter 15
NINE WONDERS
Otis and Euma arrived at the garden shed. Otis thanked Mr. Mentor for watching Telly.
"Call the police, Euma. I'm going to get Penny." He pulled the hood of his tattered jacket down as low as it would go to cover his face. "I hope no one recognizes me."
"They won't." Mr. Mentor said, resting his hand on Otis's shoulder.
Otis felt a strange surge of energy. As he turned to remind everyone to remain in the shack until he came back, he noticed Mr. Mentor was wearing the same gold sandals that the masked lady on the beach had worn, Athena's shoes.
By the time Otis reached the deck, his knees were creaking. His face felt funny and his beard seemed to grow an inch with each step he took. He reached for the deck rail and saw his hands were wrinkled and covered with age spots. Either Athena, disguised as Mr. Mentor, had just cast a spell on him or he was having another flashback from the stuff his ex-wife, Circe, had blown in has face that afternoon.
Once inside, Otis could not believe what was going on in his home. It wasn't anything like the poetry parties he remembered. It was like a cross between a real estate agent's convention and a frat house party. There were cigarette burns on the furniture and floor. Someone had thrown the his and hers keepsake champagne glasses from their wedding into the fireplace. His home was a wreck.
A tray hit Otis in the head.
"This ain't the Salvation Army, buddy! Beat it!" Antonio shoved Otis towards the front door.
"Ignore him. Penny said to be sure you get something to eat." Eunice, an elderly woman who had worked for the family since Otis was a baby, stepped between Otis and Antonio. She took Otis's arm and led him to the buffet table.
Eunice loaded a plate and as she handed it to Otis, she recognized a scar on his arm that he had gotten on a camping trip as a child.
"I don't believe it! I'm glad you're home, but you look awful!" Eunice cried.
"Eunice, go to the garden shed and stay there til I come get you. We've called the police. Do not tell anyone I'm here. Go now." Otis whispered.
Just then, Penny called everyone into the library with the promise of the prize everyone was after. Otis could not believe his ears.
"This is the deed to the house. I will sign it over to whoever wins this poetry contest." Penny stated flatly.
Professor Antonio stepped up and tried to take control of the contest by suggesting they each draw three words from a box and then each person must make their poem incorporating the words they had drawn.
"My deed. My rules." Penny insisted. Otis was impressed by how she stood her ground. He wished the police would hurry and arrive before things got out of hand.
"There are three rules. Your poems must be based upon three things that I will pick at random from the books here in my husband's library. That way no one can cheat." She said, glaring at Antonio.
Antonio was sure he would win. He was a professor who had gotten a real estate license only to take advantage of the real estate bubble. Most of the people in the house were merely real estate agents.
Penny put on a sleep mask and spun herself around. Then she walked forward until she reached a bookcase. She selected the first book and removed the mask. It was a book of Shakespeare's sonnets.
"The FIRST RULE is that it must be a Shakespearean sonnet." Penny announced. The crowd groaned.
Then she closed her eyes and opened the book at random.
"Sonnet 59." She called out. "The SECOND RULE is that it must ANSWER William Shakespeare's Sonnet 59."
"Well, it can't get much worse than that!" someone in the crowd remarked.
Penny put the sleep mask on and spun around again. She walk until she reached a wall of books and selected another book blindly.
"THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD!" she shouted.
"The THIRD RULE is that your Shakespearean Sonnet that answers Shakespeare's Sonnet 59 must ALSO contain ALL SEVEN of the SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD!"
"That's impossible!" One man yelled.
"Who can remember the rules, let alone follow them?!" Another man complained.
Otis stepped forward and meekly asked permission to try. The crowd howled insults and threw cheese cubes at him.
"Let him try!" Penny said. "At least he has the courage to try!"
Otis kept his head lowered under the raggedy hood of the jacket. He frowned for a moment, scratched behind his ear, shifted his weight, chewed off a bit of cuticle, then clearned his throat and said these words:
"What could former wits of the old worlds say?
Even if Phidias had known you well,
How could he cut stone to your grace convey,
When serenity your banks doth o'erswell?
What son of Hyperion had your mirth?
What Pharos could harbor all of your light?
What Carian vault could entomb your worth?
What Babylon better your word's delight?
What Temple of the Moon on Aegean site
Or monument rising along the Nile
Could ever canopy your frame in flight,
Or house or hold the bold winds of your style?
Character nine wonders to mend the book,
For your image commands a second look."
Before anyone could react, the police rushed into the room, handcuffed Antonio and read him his rights. The freeloaders scattered and ran to their cars. Only Penny and Otis remained in the library.
"Well, I hardly know what to say. I didn't think anyone could win the contest." Penny confessed.
"Don't you know me?" Otis told himself that Penny must have known he had returned.
Otis went to the shed and on the way his youth was restored by Athena. Athena also held back the rosy fingers of dawn and made the night last three days so Otis and Penny could have all the time they needed to make love and mend fences.
Before they went to bed, Otis checked the closet and under the bed to see if there were any golden sandals. He wanted to be sure Penny was really Penny.
"You knew it was me, didn't you?" Otis would ask Penny for the rest of his days. It was a question she never answered. She would smile like the Mona Lisa and say, "I wonder where that old man disappeared to and if he is going to return to claim his prize?"
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