The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu

Author:Anne Ursu
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781416934479
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2006-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Life Lessons From Charon

IF YOU ASKED CHARON—NOT THAT ANYONE EVER does— he’d tell you he gets a bad rap. The Ferryman for the Dead is widely considered, in both legend and life, to be rather, well, greedy. But really, if you look at all the facts, you can’t blame him. He has a family to feed.

Everyone knows he has the worst job in the Underworld. He spends his days rowing back and forth along the Styx, listening to the Dead freak out because they’re Dead and they had so much to live for, blah, blah, blah, and where in the heck are the Pearly Gates, anyway?

Actually, he kind of likes that last part.

But regardless, Charon has had his job since the beginning, the Very Beginning; when there first was an Underworld, there was Charon on the river Styx in his ferryboat. He doesn’t remember anything before that.

In the Beginning it was a nice life. A few Dead here and there, and most of them knew enough to bring a little tip for the Ferryman. That’s what civilized people do, you know. They tip. There’s no such thing as a free ride.

But that is beside the point.

Which is:

That was the good old days, when it was just he, Thanatos, Hypnos, Hades, and the Erinyes. They’d pal around and drink wine and play cards, and Hades would tell lewd jokes. He knew so many! No one’s ever known as many dirty jokes as Hades! Like, did you hear the one about Perseus and the Gorgon’s head?

No?

Oh, anyway. Everything changed when Hades brought Persephone to the Underworld. He got all funny, the way men do. Started spending all his time in the Palace. Never hung out with the guys (or the winged she-demons) anymore. Stopped caring about the Kingdom. He gave Hypnos and Thanatos their fancy-dan titles, and suddenly ol’ Charon was just a grunt, just a laborer, just the Ferryman.

Oh, and then the Dead kept coming. More and more. Charon barely got any time off. He had to get a bigger boat, which he paid for with his own hard-earned money, mind you. Did he mention he had a family to feed?

Oh, and then the Underworld just kept getting bigger and bigger, and Hades tried to lure more Staff so he could sit on his bony butt and pitch woo to the Ice Queen. And Hades promised prospective employees all these lovely perks but didn’t bother to tend to those who’d been there since the Beginning. You know how it goes. In with the new, forget the old. At least the Erinyes got to torture people.

He used to be fun, Hades did. A riot! Did you hear the one about Jason and the Golden Fleece?

No?

The point is, Charon had a family to feed. And he didn’t have any of those bonuses or benefits or personal holidays or vacation time or paternity leave or anything else that everyone and their Aunt Fanny seemed to have. He depended on fares. Not that they were enough.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.