Arts and Crafts …Part 3 …Asked and Answered

I’ve been contemplating revisiting Blythe Summers even though Elias, my shrink, thinks I’m deluded.

He’s right in a way because it’s common knowledge that no one’s invented a time machine and the poor girl’s been dead for 80 years.

That being said, the fact remains I discovered a portal in her house that allows me to go back to her time and be with her.

But I wasn’t drunk on those occasions and I was just as sane as I am now. I don’t know how it happened but it did.

It was like the time when I was in grade three and playing with my friends striking a flint in the park.

It was late in a fall afternoon and after my friends left I struck the flint and suddenly an orb whooshed out and hung suspended in the air—and in that orb I saw my teacher’s face.

I wasn’t dreaming and it really happened, and so now the same type of thing has occurred again but this time I didn’t run away scared.

I stayed and visited with Blythe and she was as real as Stella, my real estate agent who is now walking in my front door.

I know people will think that in my mind, I’ve elevated Blythe to some kind of goddess possessing supernatural powers, but the truth is, she’s as intoxicating to me as Stella who is also beautiful in her own right and as irresisitble as a Siren.

The only difference is, I don’t have to enter a time portal to be with Stella, and it’s tempting to simply give in to her charms when she’s alone with me as she is now, but I’m holding out for something better.

I just can’t pass up a chance to be with Blythe who has always been my idol.

“You’re a hard man to reach, Theo,” Stella tsks as she eyes my phone and laptop lying idle on my coffee table. “Why the disconnect—am I suddenly persona non grata?”

She’s wearing an elegant white crepe pantsuit with a black satin cami just peeking out from beneath the blazer. She knows she looks stunning.

“You’re hardly the type of woman a man could easily overlook,” I smile back at her and she seems pleased with the compliment.

“I dropped by to ask a favour, Theo, and I hope you’ll oblige me. I’ve been nominated salesperson of the year and I’ll be given the award at the Royal York Hotel on Saturday night. Would you accompany me?”

“You know I hate these types of affairs, Stella—surely there are other men just dying to be your date.”

She comes over and sits beside me on the couch, leaning in so I can inhale the soft scent of her perfume.

“Of course there are other men, Theo, but you and I have a special relationship. Surely, you won’t disappoint me?”

I know resistance is futile, since I find her incredibly alluring and actually enjoy basking in her beauty. It’s a compensation I’ve allowed myself since I’ve been in limbo about pursuing my romance with Blythe, knowing that to do so I’d have to forsake this century.

“You drive a hard bargain,” I grin ruefully, “but such things I do for beautiful women.”

“That’s why I’m getting this award,” she teases, “but there’s benefits to our friendship.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I parry, but wisely avoid commiting further.

We engage in small talk for a while but thankfully her cell beeps to remind her of another business meeting, and I watch from the doorway as she coquetishly glides to the circular driveway and slides into her glassy black Porsche.

I like Stella, I really do, and I’d consider her as a potential partner, were it not for Blythe and the overwhelming power of her enchantment.

Stella has all the seductive charm of a sea nymph that stirs tides of longing inside me, but Blythe is a goddess supreme who mutes Stella's Siren song and draws me into a world above and beyond the ordinary.

I accepted Stella's proposal for the awards ceremony, but the real invitation extended I have to decline in favour of a more potent deity--Blythe Summers.