Free Just Myrto by Laurie Gray

aloud.
    Sometimes I would purposefully struggle or make a mistake to see if he was even listening. He would sit up abruptly and say,“What was that?” If I would repeat my error, he would say, “Spell it!” And then we would sound it out together.
    Finally, one morning I reached the last sentence. “But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the shield of protection, sing of the company of women.”
    â€œThat’s it!” I shouted, and Lamprocles jumped to his feet.
    â€œWhat?” he cried. “What happened?”
    â€œThat’s the end of
Theogony.
I read every word!”
    â€œDon’t you think I already know that?” Lamprocles chided me. “I listened to every word, you know!”
    â€œWell, you didn’t look like you were listening,” I retorted.
    â€œI was listening,” Lamprocles insisted, “but I was thinking, too.”
    â€œAbout what?” I asked.
    â€œI think I know why Father wants us to read Thales next,” said Lamprocles.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI just realized that in
Theogony,
everything comes from absolutely nothing at all,” explained Lamprocles. “But Thales says that everything comes from water.”
    â€œFrom water?” I asked. “How can everything come from water? What about fire? Does Thales think fire comes from water?”
    â€œIt can’t really,” agreed Lamprocles. “But just the idea that everything has to come from something, whatever that thing is, makes sense, doesn’t it?”
    â€œEverything comes from the gods,” I said. “That’s what we just read.”
    â€œYes, but where did the gods come from?” asked Lamprocles. “Hand me that book.” He laid the text on his lap and ran hisfingers lightly across the words. “Here,” he said. “In the beginning, Chaos came to be … then the Earth and then Eros, god of love.”
    â€œEverything came from Earth and Eros,” I said. “Earth and Eros came from Chaos.”
    â€œBut what was before Chaos?” asked Lamprocles. “Before Chaos came to be?”
    â€œNothing?” I asked.
    â€œMaybe,” said Lamprocles. “Or maybe something else.”

12
    E ACH DAY BECAME a new adventure, reading to Lamprocles in the Agora. Lamprocles whittled small figurines from wood as I read and while we talked. My affection for him grew quickly beyond that I had known for my own brothers. We enjoyed the lessons and looked forward to our conversations with Socrates as we walked to and from the Agora each day.
    I avoided Xanthippe easily and completely. Every evening I sat by the lamp reading the text for the next day. Leda or one of the girls would bring me my meal. Sometimes they would linger, looking with wonder at the book in my hands. I would read aloud to them until they remembered their duties and scurried away.
    â€œYou just call me if you need anything,” they always said. And sometimes I would call, just to let them come back into the room and hear a little more.
    I felt as though I’d been carried away to the Isles of the Blessed. My reading improved until my eyes stopped seeing letters with sounds. My mind immediately grasped the words and ideas.
    I read every night until Socrates came to bed. Then I turned out the lamp and nestled in beside him to talk more about what I had read that day and what I would read to Lamprocles the next. Andsometimes, while we lay in bed talking, Eros would join us, sharing with us the secret pleasures of love.
    Socrates became my favorite dream. When I was with him, it didn’t matter whether I was awake or asleep. I had no fear of flying, no fear of falling and no fear of dying.
    Even my fear of losing Socrates subsided. With the spring came General Thrasybulus who had been exiled in Thebes. He brought many allies to overthrow the Tyrants and restore democracy in Athens. Plato’s uncle Charmides