Black Cat Bone Ch 5

I lay in bed wondering what happened or what happened. It was as if something had overcome me. I had felt desire before, but this felt more than desire and being horny. This feeling felt eternal, something I didn’t own. I looked at the bracelet and saw that one of the jade stones had a small crack. I could smell eggs and bacon and went to see Grandmother.

As I walked down the stairs, picking my way carefully through the items and relics of my hoarding grandmother's house. I walked in to see her at the stove and her looking out the window near the stove. She was in a blue floral shirt with blue pants to match. She looked forlorn and sad, and I almost didn’t want to bother her. She turned back to the food and commented to me softly. “I am glad you’re back. How are you, dear?”

I grabbed some coffee from the cabinet and started the machine. I was tired from my late night. I sighed, “Well, I met up with Thiago at “Kitty Got Wet”; it's the speakeasy I was telling you about.” I said casually as if talking about the weather. Grandmother stopped what she was doing. “You mean in Manhattan?” She asked.

I nodded my head, not quite connecting with her growing anxiety. She hurried around and plated the food, and sat down. She was wringing her hands and looking back out another window. I finally had my coffee and brought her some as well. I sat down next to her and said a quick grace. She was so preoccupied she didn’t notice.

“We need to say grace.” She said simply. I started eating when I laid my fork down and looked at her. “Gramma, are you okay? I said grace.” I put my hand on her hand. I hadn’t called her Gramma since I was little, but it felt right now. She looked at me evenly and had one eye like a cat. The pupil was longer than the other; her eyes were beautiful and emerald green.

“Honey, that's Ruth's last place before she disappeared.” She told me as her eyes brimmed with tears. I kept my hand on hers while she wiped her tears away.

“I have a theory that she knew Thiago; he told me an older lady had sent him back when he was new to traveling. Let me take a photo; maybe he can help me find her?” I asked her. She nodded her head and went to a dresser nearby. She pulled out a photo of Ruth and handed it to me. Ruth looked like my Gramma, with white hair; however, Ruth’s was long to the middle of her back. Ruth also had brown eyes and was five-nine. I tucked the picture into my pants pocket. Gramma and I ate in silence, one hand touching the whole time.

I spent the afternoon trying to learn first-aid techniques. The next place I was off to could have many injured people, and I wanted to be sure I had some basic skills to help. As I read blog after blog about first aid, I saw the bracelet light up and felt it warm on my wrist. Since I was in my Gramma’s living room then, I decided to clear the red couch of everything and lay down. I closed my eyes and prepared for where this may take me.

When I woke up, I was in a dusty room. My first order of business was to see my clothing, as that may give me more idea of where I was. I knew it wasn’t from the second picture since I hadn’t put the photo in the box. Therefore, it was a new place that I was summoned to by Thiago. There was a cat that wandered up to me, a beautiful gray tabby with green eyes. I sat up, and the cat approached me carefully. I pet the cat quickly and decided to get off the dusty, dirt floor. I noticed my attire was a single piece of cloth, fastened with a belt around my waist. The cloth was off-white, and I was wearing sandals. I knew I was in Ancient Greece, and this attire must be a chiton. My understanding of Ancient Greece was limited, but at best, I knew that this period was war-torn and violent. I realized I wasn’t in a room but in what looked like a temple. Looking around at the stone columns, I realized I was in the Parthenon, which meant I was in Athens.

I walked between the columns and looked at the airy city; tiny homes and farmland existed. I stood at the Acropolis of the city and looked back around the temple. Men were everywhere, working with what looked like marble to build the Parthenon.

The men were slim in build and wore a version of the chiton that was shorted to the knee and pinned up on the left shoulder.

I tried to stay out of the way and watched in wonder as these men would tap the stone with picks and precisely size the blocks to fit one another. I was mesmerized by the activity and didn’t notice someone standing next to me.

“They are finishing the Parthenon, you know, after the Persians had come and ransacked the city during the Persian Wars?” I recognized the voice; Thiago was next to me, already reciting facts I might need to know. I looked at him and saw he was also in a chiton, pinned on the left shoulder, above the knee. He smiled at me, and he looked vibrant.

“How do you find me so quickly?” I asked him. He grabbed my hand.

“I tend to know where to look.” He replied. He led me away from the acropolis and toward what looked like a marketplace. He quickly gave me a history lesson on Ancient Greece.

“Well, we are in the year 430 BCE, which means the Peloponnesian War is underway. This is a war between Sparta and Athens; the two city-states have been at odds for quite a while. Sparta was victorious in this war, becoming the strongest city-state in Greece. This reminds me, don’t talk to the people here, they will realize you are different, and we don’t need that. Let me do the talking. I have to show you something we don’t get taught in school.”

“Wait-I thought this is where we met in the first place? How do we know each other already?” I asked as I stopped walking with him and stood in place. He looked at me sternly and firmly led me behind a nearby wall. I tried to resist, but he picked me up and dragged me to the secluded area.

“I told you not to let people hear you speak. You aren’t Greek, and they will notice. And right now, they are not super happy with outsiders. So please don’t do that again.” He looked me in my eyes, and his eyes were pleading.

“Fine, I will be more careful; however, I want you to answer my question.” I crossed my arms over my chest. The tension was unbearable, and I wanted to stomp my foot to create some humor, but I was aware that I also felt like he was hiding something from me.

“I can only call you to where I am in time, and since I have already been when we first met, time started passing, and so when I was sent back, I came back to now. You have to wait until you receive the photo, and the box decides the times for you to return. However, I do have to show you something.” He started to walk again, and I decided to follow him begrudgingly. We walked for what felt like forever through different marketplaces and dirt roads. The city's overwhelming look was poverty, with many people attending to tasks such as preparing food and tending to livestock. We came to another temple, where I saw a statue of a man holding a snake wrapped around a staff.

“This is an Asclepieia, a place of healing, where the first physician of Greece works and helps those who are sick. This statue is Asclepius; he is supposedly the son of Apollo, where the staff comes from. The serpents are used to help heal some of the sick, which is how we go the medical symbol we still use in present times. Come walk inside with me.” Thiago explained and walked forward slowly, with purpose. When we walked inside the temple, it was filled with bodies of people covered in blisters and coughing. Clearly, they had smallpox, and I had seen enough pictures in textbooks.

“When we came here last time, it seems we were carriers for smallpox, and this is just the start; I read a case file that says about 25% of the population of ancient Greece will be infected with this disease and die. There will be mass graves dug for the bodies. We have to help them.” Thiago said sullenly, extending his arm out to show the extent that we had already caused problems in the timeline. I looked at him sadly, and I knew that he was right.

**Everything mentioned in this about the history of Ancient Greece is accurate, See below for the case study on the random plague of Athens. While obviously this didn't happen because of time travelers, it is possible.**

Resources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19787658/#:~:text=In%20430%20BC%2C%20a%20plague,of%20the%20city's%20population%2C%20died.