DOME OF FIRE
Based on the movie "Troy"

Celebwen Telcontar: I own everything in Grayson, even the town itself! If you want to visit the town Grayson is modeled after, it’s Georgetown, up in the Colorado mountains. A beautiful place.

Balrog: What’s with the dome?

Celebwen Telcontar: You’ll find out. Okay, one more thing. Things in double colons:...: are in Ancient Greek.

Suddenly, the room shook. Erin grabbed for the doorknob, trying to keep herself steady, while Kelly braced herself in the foyer. Indus and Euphrates yowled and screamed, and they fled from the room. Breaking glass testified to something having fallen and shattered, and the young women hunkered down, covering their faces and heads with their arms and hands.

The quake was over as suddenly as it began. She was sure that it hadn’t lasted less than thirty seconds, though she could have been wrong. Honks and crashes outside testified to the mayhem on the streets, and Kelly looked out to behold a very disturbing sight. She cursed in ancient Greek and Latin, trying to make sense of the odd view. It wasn’t the people wreaking havoc on the streets that worried her. It was the dome of red, veined with gold and copper that had her panicking.

“What’s wrong? You only speak ancient Greek or Latin when you’re really angry... Holy Shit! By Ra... What’s going on!” Erin cried. She couldn’t keep the panic out of her voice.

“I don’t know, Erin. I just don’t know.” They stood at the window, staring at the strange phenomenon. After a while, they left the window, but decided not to go outside because of the strange dome. Who knew what might happen when they exited the house? The home was scant protection against something airborne, but it made them feel better.

“Game of chess?” Erin asked, holding up a travel set. Kelly smiled and nodded, then set up the game.

“Get the lights, would you, Erin?” she asked, sliding the white queen from where she had fallen and the magnetic base had stuck. Erin flipped the nearby wall switch, and nothing happened.

“You’ve got a dud bulb, my friend,” she called.

“I just replaced it two days ago!” Kelly cried, exasperated. That light was the most troublesome thing to reach to replace. Erin hit another light switch, and again nothing happened.

“I think the power’s been shot, Kelly!” Erin cried. She flipped the switch for the garbage disposal, and again nothing happened.

“Crud. Okay.” Kelly finished setting up the chess set, and walked over to a little used cabinet, where she took a set of candles from, and a box of matches, before lighting the candles.

“Wow. Candlelight. High-tech,” Erin muttered, sarcastically. Kelly glared at her. “What? It’s not like we’re at the cabin, is it?”

“What time is it?” Kelly asked.

“My watch says six thirty.”

“Damn. We need to make something cold or use the Coleman stove.” She rifled through her pantries and cabinets, and found a few things for a cook able recipe. She sighed and went out into the garage with a flashlight and a dust mask on to get the lantern, stove and propane. “Here we are,” she said, lighting the lantern with a candle then blowing the candles out. She then put the stove of the counter, screwed in the propane canister, and turned on the gas before lighting the stove.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Kelly walked from the table to the door, to find her entire family, all fifty-two members of her extended family in the Colorado region, standing there. Twenty SUV’s, each hauling a horse trailer.

:By Zeus, this is one thing I do not need. Family when we are in a crisis. How did they arrive in the town before the globe closed over, anyways: Kelly mused in ancient Greek. The younger members looked confused, and the elders tried to keep smiling when they were certain that the comment had been a scathing put-down. “Come in, all of you. I don’t know where I’ll put all of you—”

“Don’t be ridiculous; we’ll find a hotel.”

“This is tourist season. Each hotel will be packed to the gills. And whatever the hell this... this... thing is may not let anyone leave.” She swept her hand skyward as she said this, encompassing the whole dome in a hand movement.

“We decided to celebrate your birthday a bit late this year. We have all the gifts—”

“So that’s why you didn’t come in the usual ten vans. Plus, you seem to have almost doubled your numbers since last time.”

“Not doubled. Halide had her fifth daughter about three weeks ago: this is little Kali.”

“I see. And you each have a horse trailer. May I ask why? Certainly you’re not giving me that many horses!”

“As a matter of fact, they are. I tried to talk them out of it, but they never listen to reason.”

“Just because I’m an author doesn’t mean that I’m able to support myself and twenty horses!” she cried. “In any case, you can put them in the backyard: that’s fairly big and covered with grass.” Kelly went inside to help in making a dinner for fifty-four people. She didn’t have enough plates for nearly a quarter of the people there, and so she sent Erin to the store to get enough tortillas for two per person, five blocks of mozzarella cheese, fifteen cans of olives, fifteen cans of chicken, and five blocks of cheddar cheese.

“We’re having quesadillas tonight? We don’t have the cooking space for that much food!”

“We’ll make do. We have to, unless we turn my family out.” She held her eyes. She couldn’t see right with the strange globe overhead, and she was feeling very warm. The cars were humming and her skin was beginning to tingle.

Suddenly, just as it had appeared, the globe vanished, and they could see stars. Her family cried out in relief, and stared at the night sky. A high wind was blowing, and they could smell that the air was sweeter and purer than it had been in the globe or before it. It was as if there was no pollution in the night sky, and the moon was rising high.

:Wait... The moon was just a crescent yesterday... Gods, it’s full now... oh, help. What the hell just happened? And that’s... Gods, those are Spring constellations! Gods help us... All I can think happened is that we were sent somewhere in time; probably in the past due to the fact that the air is so pure and the stars are so clear.: Kelly felt the panic rising in her chest, and smashed it down with an iron will as her family was rejoicing in the absence of the fiery dome. She cursed in Greek, and looked around. Everything, including Mounts Keen and McClelland were still there. So was the rest of the town. Now how much of the town came with us, wherever we went. Or should I say whenever we went. she muttered in ancient Greek. Her family was looking at her strangely. Outside, the night sky was chilly for spring even, and Kelly invited her family in, making an impromptu dinner of cereal, oatmeal, fried eggs, quesadillas, soup, some sandwiches, whatever she had around. The lights flickered back on, and the family cheered.

“Thank God, some lights that aren’t lanterns!” Uncle Markus said.

But for how long? Kelly mused in ancient Greek. When are we, anyways? And where? The moon should be rising from over there, by Mt. Keen. But it’s not. It’s rising over by Grayson Peak and Tories Peak. It says that we’ve been turned around. I’m sure East is still East, but we’ve been turned a little bit. Who knows what’s in our 2010 Colorado mountain town. Or where it would be. Her family was looking at her as if she was nuts. She certainly kept up the image, what with speaking in an unusual language to herself and muttering about Keen, Grayson, and Tories peaks, not to mention the year and the state.

“You’re as crazy as Cassandra, whoever she was,” Uncle Markus commented.

“She was a woman in the Iliad. She was the sister of Prince Paris... I see that you’re not listening to me. As usual. Alright, Aunt Beth, Aunt Marie, and Uncle Dan, your quesadillas are ready. Uncle Markus, Uncle Bert, Uncle Dave, Aunt Abigail, Mom, Rose, Cathie, Carrie, Mary, Chess, there are bowls in the cupboard, milk in the fridge and cereal in the pantry. Erin, can you start a huge batch of eggs? We have tomatoes and onions in the fridge, along with red and green pepper. Uncle William, could you please get the bread out of the fridge, and the preserves and jellies, the peanut butter is in the pantry. One sandwich per person, for... about thirty-four people? I don’t think I have enough bread. Ten people will have cereal and ten quesadillas.” Suddenly, the phone rang. “Uncle Clarence, please take the quesadillas; I’ve got to take this call.” She picked up the cordless phone and hit the talk button. “Yes?” Her voice was harsh. First the mobbing tourists, then the fiery dome, and then her family. How could she get it into people’s heads that she hated civilization? That she couldn’t live with multiple people? This was the last straw. She was ready to kill the next person who crossed her path.

“Miss Rothschild, I’ve heard that you are the best expert on ancient times.”

“It depends on the country, idiot!” she snarled. Her family backed away from her quickly.

“There’s a shepherd outside who speaks some language someone said is ancient Greek.”

“Not now, you son of a bitch! I can’t cope. How many times, Lawrence, have I said I hate crowds and civilization? That’s why I moved up here! To get away from people! But instead I have them dropping on me every minute of every Gods-damned day! Damn you blockheads! Leave me alone for once in my life!” She slammed the receiver in the cradle, and her family stared at her. “I’m going out to see to the horses,” she snapped. They moved out of her way as she walked to the back door, then opened it an went down the porch steps to see a beautiful pair of Friesians standing side by side in a crowd of eighteen other horses. She walked up, and an Arabian stallion came up, nuzzling her. She buried her hands in his mane, and began to sob in the silky neck. “I can’t handle this, Aissus!” she said. She had named the horse that, the Greek word for Swift with the suffix naming him a male, and he whiffed in her hair. “Well, since we’re in Ancient Greece, we should use the cars for military purposes only. Come, Aissus. Let’s go.” She led him over to a trailer, where she found a saddle, bridle, saddle blanket, and grooming equipment. She quickly had him groomed, his hooves picked, and tacked up. She then swung into the saddle, and urged him to a steady canter to the nearest of the town’s firehouses, where Daniel Lawrence, the Mayor, was with a shepherd. She needed something else right now; a shepherd and being transported to ancient Greece was the most of her problems.

Celebwen Telcontar: The Gods willed it. I suppose. More or less, I willed it.

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