Walk Two Moons - Quia



27

PANDORA'S BOX

THE NEXT DAY, AS I WAS HELPING PHOEBE LUG HER suitcase home, I said, "Phoebe, I know you've been upset lately-"

"I have not been upset lately," she said.

"Sometimes, Phoebe, I like you a lot-"

“Why, thank you." .

"-but sometimes, Phoebe, I feel like dumping your cholesterol-free body out the window."

She did not have a chance to respond, because we were at her house, and she was more interested in besieging her father with questions. "Any news? Did Mom come back? Did she call?"

"Sort of," he said. "She phoned Mrs. Cadaver-" "Mrs. Cadaver? Whatever for? Why would she-"

"Phoebe, calm down. I don't know why she phoned Mrs. Cadaver. I haven't been able to speak to Mrs. Cadaver myself yet. She isn't home. She left a note here." He showed it to Phoebe: Norma called to say she is okay. Beneath Mrs. Cadaver's signature was a P.S. saying that Mrs. Cadaver would be away until Monday.

"I don't believe that Mom called Mrs. Cadaver. Mrs. Cadaver is making it up. Mrs. Cadaver probably killed her and chopped her up. I'm calling the police."

They had a huge argument, but at last Phoebe fizzled out. Her father said he had been calling everyone he could think of, to see if her mother had indicated where she might be going. He would continue calling tomorrow, he promised, and he would speak with Mrs. Cadaver. If he did not receive a letter-or a direct phone call-from her mother by Wednesday, he would call the police.

Phoebe came out on the porch with me as I was leaving. She said, "I've made a decision. I'm going to call the police. I might even go to the police station. I don't have to wait until Wednesday. I can go whenever I want."

That night she phoned me. She was whispering again. "It seems so quiet here. I don't know what is the matter with me. I was lying on my bed and I can't sleep. My bed's too hard."

On Monday, Phoebe gave her oral report on Pandora. She began in a quivering voice. “For some reason, Ben already talked about my topic, Pandora, when he did his report on Prometheus. However, Ben made a few little mistakes about Pandora. "

Everyone turned around to stare at Ben. “I did not," he said.

“Yes, you did." Phoebe's lip trembled. “Pandora was not sent to man as a punishment, but as a reward --"

“Was not," Ben said.

“Was too," Phoebe said. “Zeus decided to give man a present, since man seemed lonely down there on Earth, with only the animals to keep him company. So Zeus made a sweet and beautiful woman, and then Zeus invited all the gods to dinner. It was a very civilized dinner, with matching plates. "

Mary Lou and Ben exchanged an eyebrow message.

"Zeus asked the gods to give the woman presents -- to make her feel like a welcome guest." Phoebe glanced at me. “They gave her wonderful things: a fancy shawl, a silver dress, beauty --"

Ben interrupted. “I thought you said she was already beautiful."

"They gave her more beauty. Are you satisfied?" Her lip was no longer trembling, but she was blushing. "The gods also gave her the ability to sing, the power of persuasion, a gold crown, flowers, and many truly wonderful things such as that. Because of all these gifts, Zeus named her Pandora, which means 'the gift of all.'"

Phoebe was getting into it. "There were two other gifts that I have not mentioned yet. One of them was curiosity. That is why all women are curious, by the way, because it was a gift given to the very first woman."

Ben said, "I wish she had been given the gift of silence."

"Last, there was a beautiful box, covered in gold and jewels, and this is very important-she was forbidden to open the box."

Ben said, "Then why did they give it to her?"

He was beginning to irritate Phoebe, you could tell. She said, "That's what I'm telling you. It was a present. "

"But why did they give her a present that she couldn't open?"

"I-do-not-know. It's just in the story. As I was saying, Pandora was not supposed to open the box, but because she had been given so much curiosity, she really, really, really wanted to know what was inside, so one day she opened the box."

"I knew it," Ben said. "I knew she was going to open the box the minute that you said she was not supposed to open it."

"Inside the box were all the evils in the world, such as hatred, envy, plagues, sickness, and cholesterol. There were brain tumors and sadness, lunatics and kidnapping and murders"-she glanced at Mr. Birkway before rushing on -- "and all that kind of thing. Pandora tried to close the lid when she saw all the horrible things that were coming out of it, but she could not get it closed, and that is why there are all these evils in the world. There was only one good thing in the box."

"What was it?" Ben asked.

"As I was about to explain, the only good thing in the box was Hope, and that is why, even though there are many evils in the world, there is still a little hope." She held up a picture of Pandora opening up the box and a whole shebang of gremlins floating out. Pandora looked frightened.

That night I kept thinking about Pandora's box. I wondered why someone would put a good thing such as Hope in a box with sickness and kidnapping and murder. It was fortunate that it was there, though. If not, people would have the birds of sadness nesting in their hair all the time, because of nuclear war and the greenhouse effect and bombs and stabbings and lunatics.

There must have been another box with all the good things in it, like sunshine and love and trees and all that. Who had the good fortune to open that one, and was there one bad thing down there in the bottom of the good box? Maybe it was Worry. Even when everything seems fine and good, I worry that something will go wrong and change everything. .

My mother, my father, and I all seemed fine and happy at our house until the baby died. Could you actually say that the baby died, since it had never breathed? Did its birth and death occur at the same moment? Could you die before you were born?

Phoebe's family had not seemed fine, even before the arrival of the lunatic and the messages, and the disappearance of Mrs. Winterbottom. I knew that Phoebe was convinced that her mother was kidnapped because it was impossible for Phoebe to imagine that her mother could leave for any other reason. I wanted to call Phoebe and say that maybe her mother had gone looking for something, maybe her mother was unhappy, maybe there was nothing Phoebe could do about it.

When I told this part to Gram and Gramps, Gramps said, "You mean it had nothing to do with Peeby?" They looked at each other. They didn't say anything, but there was something in that look that suggested I had just said something important. For the first time, it occurred to me that maybe my mother's leaving had nothing whatsoever to do with me. It was separate and apart. We couldn't own our mothers.

On that night after Phoebe had given her Pandora report, I thought about the Hope in Pandora's box. Maybe when everything seemed sad and miserable, Phoebe and I could both hope that something might start to go right.

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