Once upon a time, a Greek princess fell in love with her invisible husband. Today, a girl will find out if she can fall in 'like' with a guy she's never seen.

Modern Day Eros and Psyche

Chapter 1

Blind trust

Faith

In an invisible presence

My love

I blinked. Nope, still the same hillside. The view was fantastic, as usual. A beautiful view of my beautiful kingdom…or hometown, whichever you prefer. Still, as cliché as it sounds, I loved being here; It was like being on top of the world, far away from the stress of homework, chores, and the rest of the world’s stresses.

I had been coming up here my whole life. My parents brought me here as a baby and once I learned to walk they couldn’t keep me away, which was something of a nightmare for them. ‘The mountain,’ as we call it, has always held special meaning for me after they told me the story of Psyche, the Greek princess who met her true love, a god, under mysterious circumstances. Psyche also happens to be my namesake.

That’s right. My parents named me after a Greek goddess. One part cool, one part mystical, two parts bizarre. My parents were really into Greek and/or Roman mythology when I was born. Thankfully, they gave me a normal middle name (Katie) that I could go by. It’s not that I don’t like my name, far from it actually. It just doesn’t go over well with the elementary-school age set. It isn’t much fun to be called “Psycho” all the time, in case you couldn’t have guessed.

Anyway, it has always been a favorite ‘fairy tale’ of mine, and I came up here to daydream often. Not that all the time I spent up here was used for lolligagging mind you. There was that garbage bag-parachute incident…the baking pan sledding incident…the bonfire incident…ah, good times.

I sighed. Unfortunately, none of these reasons were why I was here now. I reflected on the day’s events…

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“Hey honey! It’s your mother. Listen, Jakey is missing again. Will you check ‘the mountain’ right after school? We think he may be there. Call if you find him, ‘kay? Love you! Bye.”

‘Here we go again,’ I thought as I snapped my cell phone shut with one hand and spun the dial on the combination lock to my locker, all while balancing my books. I silently congratulated myself on my coordination before trying to figure out why my little neighbor Jacob had run off this time. Buried treasure, probably….

In any case, I still needed to inform Rebecca that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the “very important” leadership meeting concerning the upcoming talent show. Every meeting was “very important” to No Nonsense Rebecca, and I hoped that it would be okay to miss just this one. I steered myself in the right direction, trying to come up with a diplomatic approach to convincing her that it wasn’t the end of the world.

Upon approaching the leadership room, I heard her chewing out her latest victim for who-knows-what. Her voice was bordering on illegal decibels and began sending tremors of at least 5.7 on the Richter scale of rage. I winced and hoped that I could make it out alive.

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Fifteen minutes later I reached the mountain’s parking lot miraculously alive and ready to start Operation: Find Jakey. Lydia and Amy, my two closest friends, came with me to help search for him. They, like me, had fallen in love with the little guy. His sense of adventure and his trust in the world never ceased to amaze me. Having babysat him for most of his five-year life, I had a pretty good idea where to find him; he always seemed to be in the same places.

My friends are so (insert mushy-gushy phrase here). Not every girl would hike in 45-degree, windy weather to help out a friend in need. Then again, we had known each other since pre-k. We stuck together all these years, and even now in high school when our activities kept us apart for more than an hour (something that back in fifth grade we’d pledged would never happen), we stayed close, catching up whenever an opportunity presented itself.

We began our trek up ‘the mountain’. It really wasn’t much of a hike; a ten-minute walk was more like it. On the way up, we discussed how our days had been. Lydia encountered her ex, a.k.a. “The Jerk” during lunch. Casualties included several classmates whom were splattered with ketchup when Lydia missed. She proceeded to swear off boys forever. I knew that meant for about two weeks. After the typical down period she’d be flashing her million-watt smile at all the guys, all of whom would fall under its spell instantaneously.

I wish I had a million-watt smile. My parents tell me I have a $5,000 smile; that’s how much is cost to form it, along with three years of pain and the nickname “Braceface.”

Amy brought us up to date on the latest novel she was reading. I simply reported on the outcome of the tryouts for the talent show. They scrounged up such a disappointing turnout that Rebecca had begun to work the committee harder than ever.

When we reached the top, the kid was nowhere to be found. All his usual haunts were decidedly Jakey-less. We decided to head back down and re-search the area.

By the time we had reached the bottom, it was even colder and windier. My friends abandoned me there. Okay, maybe they weren’t quite so wonderful, but hey, I couldn’t blame them. I decided to head up one last time.

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So that’s how I ended up here, tired, cold, wind-chapped and exhausted. I was SO out of shape. I sat down on one of the picnic benches with one fleeting thought toward the gunk stuck to the bench that could stain to my jeans. I curled up in the warm depths of my coat and thick sweater as I set my head in the table and let my exhaustion overtake my consciousness. I had a vague sense of drops hitting my cheeks before everything turned black.

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A fair maiden in a white wedding gown perched on a grassy hilltop waited calmly. The warm sun and cool, soft grass called slumber to her. In her dreams strong, invisible arms gently lifted her into the sky. Across the land she floated in these arms as if carried by the wind itself. The dream carried her to a paradise, a garden filled with the most fragrant and colorful blossoms. When she awoke, she found…

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Consciousness crept through my head. The sound of raindrops splattering reached my ears, and it dawned on me that I they were not bombarding me. Alarmed, I sat up and smashed my head into something in the process. Wait, I was on a bench, wasn’t I? What was around to hit my head on?

My vision cleared at the same rate as my head. I was in my car. I was dry. I was IN my car. I was unhurt. I was in my CAR. I was really confused.

The sound of crunching paper caught my ear. I looked down, and saw a folded scrap of notebook paper sitting innocently near my leg. I opened it and found a hastily scribbled note smudged in places by water droplets. Judging by the handwriting, the writer was most definitely male.

Hey Sleepyhead!

I found you asleep on the bench as it started to rain. I tried really hard to wake you up, but I couldn’t. You must have been sleeping really deeply. Hope you had pleasant dreams.

I couldn’t just leave you out there to get soaked, so I brought you down here to what I assumed is your car. (So how did the mystery person get me in here?) It was unlocked. (Oh.) You might want to look into that…

Anyway, I hope you’re not too creeped out. I’m just a well-meaning guy. If you’re really concerned (and I’m so sorry if you are) here’s my email.

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To be continued…

This story is somewhat based on a Greek myth. It tells the story of a beautiful Greek princess, Psyche, and a Greek god, Eros (AKA Cupid). Basically, Psyche marries the guy, but she can’t see him, which is all a test of trust. For the whole story, I recommend visiting the Myth Man (mythman . com) or reading the book "Aphrodite's Blessings: Love Stories from the Greek Myths". Coming to you Summer 2005!