Free Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers by Marika Cobbold Page B

that’s different, completely different. All those things, fidelity, family stability, coupling for life, those were not invented for
us
. They,
mortals
, need boundaries, rules and strictures, or there’s anarchy. They don’t have the wherewithal to cope with the freedoms we up here take for granted. As for Athene, she is intolerably smug and quite intentionally hurtful, but as I said to her, she would do well to put her own cult in order before she criticises someone else’s.’
    â€˜Atta girl. You show the bitch.’ Mother gives me a green look so I quickly say, ‘I mean you show Aunt Athene how it’s done – properly – kind of thing … anyway …’
    Mother says, ‘There is no doubt that Rebecca Finch has been letting me down and letting me down badly. She still hasn’t delivered her new book. Her heart is not in her work at all. The other day she mumbled and fumbled her way though a talk at a very high-profile literary event when she was meant to shine as a representative of her craft. No, Eros, that kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated, it really cannot.’
    â€˜So what do we do about it?’ I ask.
    â€˜We get her back on track, that’s what we do.’
    â€˜How?’ I am about to sit down next to her but she gives me a look so I remain standing.
    â€˜It’s obvious, isn’t it? We make her love again, that’s how, and this time it has to be permanent.’
    â€˜It sounds so easy,’ I say, ‘but I thought I did a pretty good job with what’s-his-name – Mother stops me with another of those mean dark looks. ‘OK, maybe not that good but whatI’m saying is that it’s not my fault. All right then, it might be partly but –’
    â€˜Oh, do stop drivelling. The fact is that Rebecca Finch has failed in love. If she isn’t capable of learning from her mistakes and finding love again then we must do it for her. And as we all know the child is the father of the man so if you’d kindly fetch me the box set of her life and meet me next door.’
    â€˜She’s a woman so shouldn’t it be the girl is the mother of the woman –’
    â€˜Can you not do what you’re asked to without arguing, just for once?’
    â€˜I wish we could change to DVDs,’ I mutter as I dump this huge pile of tapes on the table.
    â€˜You know I can’t work those things,’ Mother says. ‘Now stop complaining and watch.’ She pats the seat next to her on the sofa. ‘Right,
cherchez I’enfant
!’
    As the first video starts playing I sit down next to her. I rest my head on her shoulder just lightly, sort of expecting her to shrug me off but she doesn’t, so with a sigh I fold my wings and snuggle closer.
    â€˜Is your mother always sad?’ Matilda asked Rebecca.
    Rebecca nodded.
    â€˜Pretty well.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Because her heart’s broken.’
    â€˜Does it hurt?’
    â€˜Duh.’
    â€˜How did it happen?’
    â€˜It happened when they put my daddy’s coffin in the ground. He was in it.’
    â€˜Was she underneath?’
    â€˜No. No, of course not. They only put dead people in graves. Didn’t you know that?’
    Matilda felt stupid, and trying to recover she countered, ‘Not if they’re zombies.’
    â€˜My mother isn’t a zombie and she wasn’t in the grave.’ Rebecca too was getting upset.
    Matilda put two strong little arms around her friend and gave her a hug.
    Then she said, ‘Can our hearts break too?’
    Rebecca nodded again.
    â€˜When our husbands die.’
    â€˜They don’t always die, you know. Mrs Nicholson’s, for example, just left for Canada.’
    Mother presses the pause button and says, ‘An early preoccupation with mortality. There could be something there. Wasn’t her sister sick too?’
    I shrug. I mean how should I know?
    â€˜Well,