Harrison (with toy stethoscope around his neck): “I am Asclepius, god of medicine. My father was Apollo, god of sun, light, music, poetry, the arts, archery, and healing. I specialize in one thing: medicine. That may sound boring, but Dad’s life had way too much drama. If you ask me, medicine should be boring. Because when it’s interesting, that means someone’s sick.”
Me: “My name is Persephone. About two years ago, I was snatched away from my happy life and taken to the underworld. I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t do anything to deserve it. I don’t know why Hades fell in love with me, but he did. The whole time he kept me a prisoner in the underworld, I was incredibly lonely and bored—so bored I thought I’d go crazy. Fortunately, the underworld has a big library, so at least I could catch up on my reading.
“But every day I was in the underworld, all I dreamed about was returning to earth. Sometimes in the middle of the night I’d wake up and start to freak out—because I couldn’t remember where I was, or how I’d gotten there. And the only way I could get through the night was by thinking about my room back home, and about my parents, Demeter and Zeus. They’re not together anymore, but I knew they both still loved me.
“My mom, Demeter, goddess of the hearth and the harvest, had to give up her work to search for me, but she didn’t care. She refused to give up—and when she told my dad, Zeus, what had happened to me, he got just as upset, and was just as determined to get me back. So he sent Hermes to fetch me from the underworld. Hades was an evil, powerful god, but even he had to listen when Zeus said I should be released.
“But when Hermes arrived in the underworld, this gardener told him that I’d eaten the food of the dead—so I was ‘of the underworld’ and couldn’t return to earth.
“Okay. Now my story gets a little complicated. In one version, the gardener said that he found six pomegranate seeds missing, and that I ate them because I was ‘lost in thought.’
“In another version, Hades tricked me into eating the pomegranate seeds.
“Either way, I messed up, right? I ate the pomegranate without meaning to, without realizing I was doing it, but that’s no excuse. I still ate the food of the dead. And that meant I had to spend half of my life back in the underworld.
“Well, what I need to tell you is that both of those versions are wrong. When I ate those pomegranate seeds, it wasn’t a mistake or an accident; I did it on purpose. Just as Hermes came to get me, to bring me back home to earth, I stuffed six seeds into my mouth. I knew what I was doing.
“I know what you’re thinking: But why? Why would you do that, Persephone? You hated every single second you were in the underworld. All you ever dreamed about was returning to earth, having a normal life again. So why would you eat the one food that would mean things would never be completely normal for you, that you’d have to return to the underworld for six whole months of every year, forever?
“This is why: When Hermes came to get me, he said Zeus and Demeter were planning to erase all my memories of the underworld. The underworld was all behind me now, Hermes said. ‘Only good things from now on.’
“Well, I refused to accept that. Because after living in the underworld all that time, it became part of me, part of who I am. I could finally go back to the earth, I wanted to go back to the earth, I wanted to hug Demeter and pick flowers, and do all the normal, regular girl stuff, just like I had before the dark day Hades kidnapped me. But to erase all my memories of the underworld, and pretend that everything was the same as it used to be, would be a lie. I mean, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know what the underworld is like. I couldn’t tell myself that only good things will be in my future, because how could you be sure of that, anyhow? And having been in the underworld—surviving all that time—made me tough. Made me realize I could survive anything in existence, including evil gods and monsters. So I never wanted to forget that.
“The underworld is real. It’s not like it goes away just because you’re back on earth. It’s always there, part of the whole big universe. And now I knew that.
“The other thing was, I was scared. I know that probably sounds crazy, but it’s the truth: I was scared to go back to the beautiful earth. Because I couldn’t stop worrying: What if no one understood what had happened to me? What if, the whole time I was away, everything had changed? Or what if the earth hadn’t changed at all, but I had? Maybe I’d moved forward, and couldn’t go back.
“The underworld was horrible. But if you live anywhere for a long time, it feels like home, I guess. So I think I was scared to give it up, or maybe just not ready.
“Anyway, for all of those reasons, I ate the pomegranate.
“Don’t ask me what it tasted like. I can’t explain. If you haven’t tasted something, you can’t really ask someone else to describe the flavor. You have to taste it yourself, but truthfully, I hope you never do.
“Just know that I ate it on purpose. I wasn’t only a sort of victim, getting kidnapped and rescued. I wasn’t sleepwalking and I wasn’t tricked.
