Straight Through the Heart

Part 6

By Sheila

 



Owwww….hitting that door hurt me more than I expected. Yeah, we immortals get hurt sometimes too…one of the hazards of the job. While I try to regroup and gather up my strength, I have to listen to the aftermath of that accidental arrow…

“No! Carmen is *mine*. We belong together.” Annie places herself in between Carmen and Ben.

“Uh, Annie, we need to prepare the plane for take-off…remember?” Another stewardess tries to intervene, but to no avail. Annie just pushes her away.

“Annie Annie Annie…how very little you know about all this.” Ben smiles sardonically. “Carmen belongs to no one. No one, that is, except me.” Gee, this guy has potential…maybe he could take Dietz’ place if the need arises…

Meanwhile, Carmen, for once, is speechless. She keeps looking at Ben, then at Annie, then at Ben again. Those arrows were never meant to hit three people at once…in fact the arrow is only supposed to hit one person! While this is a crazy accident, it is a learning experience…a kind of spontaneous experiment. Plus, Carmen and Ben are so distracted with each other…and Annie…that they have no time to interfere with Danny and Michelle.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Danny and Michelle’s faces get closer and closer right before Carmen and Ben entered the plane. After my arrow was deployed and all pandemonium broke loose, they separated and approached the part of the plane where Annie and Ben were fighting over Carmen, who still couldn’t say a word and looked absolutely smitten with Ben. Well, that arrow really worked a number on her…wish I could’ve know that sooner!

Annie finally gets dragged off the plane, kicking and screaming. I saw that Josh had placed a call to the police, who arrive on the scene to place her custody in violation of her probation terms. Carmen goes to Ben and plants a long passionate kiss on his mouth. Danny is shocked, and so is Michelle.

“Mother, what is going on? What are you doing here?” Good question, my man. How did half of Spring…what is it? Springdale? Springview? Spring City? No wait…Irish Spring? Port Spring? Spring Beach? Spring Valley? Aahhh…forget it. How did all of these people get on this flight? Oh yeah, Merc…That screwy Mercury. That’s right…now I remember. He put together this tour group…how am I going to get these two through the next few days…

“Danny…your mother…and I are…getting married…in San Cristobal.” Ben manages to say in between the myriad of kisses.

“What?! Mother, is this true?”

Carmen only nods her head and continues to kiss Ben with an animal hunger. Boy, this woman hasn’t gotten any in quite some time!

“Danny, let’s leave them alone. I, uh, think it’s obvious that they don’t want to talk right now.” Yeah, Danny boy, listen to your wife. You go, Michelle!

“But I’m worried about her. I’m worried that this Ben Warren guy is going to take advantage of her.”

“She’s a big girl. She can take of herself.” Well said, girlfriend! She comes closer to Danny, as her face gets closer to his. She sighs. He sighs. They both lean in to kiss. I smile with pride. Guess I didn’t really need my arrows after all with these two…

Before I know it, I see a crooked green arrow from out of nowhere hit Michelle. What is that? I soon found my answer.

Michelle pushes Danny away. “Leave me alone, Danny. I know you love her more than me.” What?! No, this can’t be happening…what was that?

“Yo, Cupid, what’s up?” I turn around and there is someone who looks exactly like me, except for the fact that his skin is completely green and his eyes are also green. He even has the same get-up as me, except that he has zigzag-shaped green arrows.

“You wouldn’t happen to be related to the Green Giant?”

He just laughs at me heartily. “Funny, but no. You really don’t know who I am?”

“Am I supposed to?”

He grins. “I’ll give you three guesses.”

“Oh, come on. I don’t have time for games…”

“Fine. Hey Apollo…can you put the day on pause…just unless I get this cleared up?” I hear the sound of chariot wheels screeching to a halt and suddenly, everyone freezes in time, and it is just the two of us speaking. “Thanks!” He then turns to me. “Okay. Now we have time.”

“We do have an amazing physical resemblance. But wait…Mom never mentioned anything about having twins.”

“No, not twins. Guess again!”

“My, uh, stunt double? But might I mention that you’re looking a bit green…”

“Nope. Last guess?”

“Okay. My alter ego.”

“That’s pretty close, but not quite close enough. I’m your clone.”

“My what?!”

“Your clone. Mom hated losing you to that wench, Psyche, so she made me because she missed you…only, she didn’t follow all the directions correctly and made me your exact opposite. Instead of bringing the love…I bring on the jealousy, the envy…the hate!” He smiled. “I’m Bizarro Cupid. But you can call me Bizzy!” He laughed.

“Okay…Bizzy.” My mind is still trying to get around the idea of cloning. Didn’t Mom see what a mess it made for Reva? Then again, she could never see straight when it came to Reva…never could make up her mind about this particular mortal…

“Why are you messing with my project? You’re just making things worse. I saw what you did with Michelle…you shot her with one of those. Now I have to undo what you…”

“Not so fast, man. Look, I’m sick and tired of seeing all these happy couples. I mean, come on, you can admit it…don’t you ever get disgusted with all the lovey dovey stuff you create every day. It’s so boring!”

“No. What are you talking about? It’s my job…” And did I mention that I don't get paid nearly enough for this job?

“It’s my job!’” He mimics me…and very badly at that! “Oh please! Don’t you ever have any fun?”

“Sure I do…the good kind of fun. So is that what you do? You get your kicks by going around breaking up my successes?”

“Uh-huh. Why do you think Andre and Brooke broke up?”

“What? You did that? What else did you do?” I remember matching them up…thought it was quite original…a tennis player and a…oh yeah, an actress. My memory is fading, I swear. “Did you break up Dennis and Carmen?”

“Of course. You were losing it there…following the same pattern there…an athlete with a model-turned-wannabe actress…so unoriginal, so blah.”

“Who else?”

“There’s a big list. Brad and Gwyneth.”

“What? I should have known. And I suppose you broke up Bruce and Demi too, right?”

“Yep, that was me!” He grins widely. “And not just celebrities, mind you. Face it, I’m good at what I do.”

“Yeah, you're good at getting into my business."

Bizzy laughs. "Oh, that's a good one."

I ignore him. "But I am good at what *I* do. Face it, you would have nothing to do without me. Why don't you find some other couple to break up. What about Michael and Lisa-Marie? That was the result of a bet with Hades...what a mistake."

"Been there, done that...where have you been?"

"Aww, come on…butt out of this one. These two have been through enough grief…they certainly don’t need yours…” I look back to Michelle who is sitting next to Danny only because it is a full flight and there are no other seats to be had. Her arms are crossed, and she is watching the safety video with much more attention than most people on the plane. Everyone else is talking and putting their seatbelts on. Danny is trying to talk to Michelle, but she just ignores him. Somehow I’ve got to reverse the effect of Bizzy’s arrow. Somehow I’ve got to get rid of Bizzy.




Part 7

Don't you just LOVE Bizzy? Sheila, you're a genius! Tell her so!

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