At first, I was skeptical about coming back to Olympus. It had been thousands of years after all, and things change over time.
Over the years, I spent time at archeological dig sites and explored the rest of the world’s ancient history. Now that I’ve been back home for a while, I do not regret my decisions.
It has been nice to see my family back together. I missed my father and my sisters over the years, and it was wonderful hearing their stories. The only issue that I’ve had since arriving was finding a job. Who knew finding a job could be such a difficult task? I looked through newspapers and couldn’t find what I was looking for. After much contemplation, I finally figured out what I wanted to do: open my own museum. A place where people could learn the most important history through time. Luckily, I had enough money to start a museum here in Olympus. The building was a thirty-minute walk from the Olympus Administration, and it was a perfect size.
Today was the day I would explore my newly-purchased building and examine what I could do with the space. Walking down the street, I made a mental note of different places I could find coffee and food. Outdoors it smelled like freshly picked flowers and sweaty people. Not a very pleasant combination for the nose, but I tried to ignore it.
“So, I keep walking straight down this street, then take a right two streets down,” I mumbled to myself.
While walking, I passed a floral stand and stopped in front of it. I looked at the flowers and smiled to myself. Looking at each one, I pointed at the white roses on the far right.
“How much for those?” I asked the florist.
“20 Euros,” he replied.
After giving him the money, I grabbed my flowers and continued on my way. It only took another ten minutes until I arrived in front of the building. From the outside, it looked like it was two stories tall. Four large pillars graced the entrance, reminding me of a temple from ancient times, but the building looked more modern. Walking up the stairs, I opened the wooden doors and made my way inside. Dust particles floated in the air and dirt covered the floor. The marble staircase in front of me also needed some desperate cleaning.
I placed my things on the front desk before making my way to the room on the right. This building used to be a museum that focused on ancient currency and maps, but over the years fewer people came. It went out of business a few years ago, and no one had shown interest in the building except for me.
The room on the right had maps in glass cases on the wall and in the center. I took my time to study them, interested to see what I had to work with.
“Fake, fake, fake, real, fake…”
At the end of exploring the first floor, I discovered that there were only four artifacts that were real, but they weren’t that impressive. I made my way up to the second floor. Up there, I found a few statues and a storage room for artifacts that were not on display. When opening the storage room door, I was greeted by dust. It irritated my eyes and I sneezed loudly. I took a few breaths before entering the room. Inside, there were white sheets covering every piece of furniture and objects in the room. I pulled one of the white sheets off and more dust flew into the air. This time, I covered my mouth with one hand until the dust settled.
Under the sheet was another glass case with some books and quills. I squinted my eyes and got closer to the glass case.
“Ancient Greek historian Herodotus used these books to record history through time, blah blah blah-”
I glanced at one of the books and shook my head.
“Do these mortals know nothing? These belonged to Arrian of Nicomedia. How disappointing.”
I studied the rest of the artifacts in the case, then I noticed something that made my eyes widen. I quickly lifted up the glass case and pulled out a reed pen. A smile spread across my face.
“There you are. I thought I lost you!” I giggled to myself. “It must have been over two thousand years since I have written with you.”
Suddenly, I heard the doorbell go off. I looked behind me, confused.
Who is that?
I quickly ran down the stairs to the front door. Outside, two men were standing there with a clipboard in hand. “Clio, we have a delivery for you,” the taller one says.
I raised my eyebrows as he handed me the clipboard. Glancing over it, I saw my name written on the top. “That is my name, but I was not expecting a delivery.” I handed the clipboard back to the man.
“Look, lady, we have lots of things to do today. Do you want it or not?”
Behind the man, I noticed two other people were carrying some statues out from a huge moving truck. From this distance, I could tell they were authentic, and I felt excitement bubbling up inside me.
“I’ll take it,” I said and signed the papers with a shaky hand.
For the next few hours, I watched the men unload everything in the truck. It was almost enough for the whole museum, and I noticed a pattern among the items being brought in. There happened to be a lot of artifacts about the muses. Among the stuff, I noticed my sister’s lyre and a comedic mask that had belonged to Thalia at one point. Everything I looked at reminded me of the past, good and bad. Something about this made me feel happy.
I was so distracted by studying the objects that I almost don’t hear one of the delivery guys calling my name.
“I am sorry.” I walked up to him with an apologetic smile.
“We are all done here,” he said. “This is the last thing I am supposed to give you before we leave.”
He handed me an envelope and I looked at it curiously.
“Have a good day, miss.”
I waved goodbye to him and shut the door. Carefully opening the envelope, I read what was inside:
Clio, Muse of History,
I have been watching you for some time now, and I am glad you finally decided to open a museum of your own. Teach the mortals about the true history of our world. They deserve to know it.
Good luck,
L
Clio is portrayed by Alice Callisto. Alice Callisto is a pen-name she goes by to share her fiction writing with the world. Callisto is also a streamer who loves to play games like Skyrim to Call of Duty. She is a big fan of ancient history and enjoys learning new things. Callisto has been writing since the age of sixteen on various different platforms, but only started taking it seriously recently. She is currently working on a project for #NaNoWriMo which involves dragons. Follow her on Twitch and Twitter to make her day.
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