Cupid, God of Love, doesn't want to shoot any more arrows.
Eros, aka Cupid, the God of Love, doesn't want to shoot any more arrows.
"Cupid! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm sleeping or, at least, trying to sleep."
"Get up, Eros. Get out of bed. You're going to be late," said Psyche Cupid's wife.
"Late? Late for what?"
"Valentine's Day. Today is Valentine's Day. You'll be late for Valentine's Day."
"Oh, that, yeah, well, I'm not doing it today, Psyche. I just can't. I'm tired. I'm depressed. I've had it. I'm done. I'm staying home," said Cupid, aka Eros, pulling the covers over his head.
"Not doing it today? Tired? Depressed? Staying home? Are you nuts? You've worked all year for this one day. You can't stay home? This is the most important day of the year. People depend upon you, especially today, of all days, the day of love." His wife stared at the impression he made beneath the covers. "Today is Valentine's Day and you're Cupid. You can't stay home."
"People don't need me anymore," said Eros peeking up above the covers to look at his wife. "They have the Internet with one click dating sites now. Besides, it's no longer about love. It's all about sex and it's all about money. Romance is dead. People don't want to get married anymore. They just want to get laid."
"Don't be silly. Romance is not dead. There are still people getting married Cupid and the reason why they need you. Maybe you should talk to your friend, the one who this day is named after, Saint Valentine."
"Saint Valentine? He has his head in a Heavenly cloud. He'd never even see, never mind agree with my point."
"Then, I don't know what to tell you, Cupid, other than you just can quit helping people to fall in love. It's what you do," said his wife.
"There's a pox on marriages, I tell you. Too many marriages today are marriages of convenience. Now, there are actually even, arranged marriages and mail order marriages," he said taking a pause to wipe a tear from his eye, "loveless marriages, gay marriages, and marriages performed just to allow an illegal alien to stay in this country."
"Come on, give me a break with the Internet dating sites, arranged, mail order, loveless, gay, and illegal alien marriages. You're the God of Love, the Archer for Venus. You're above all of that. You have the gift and the magic arrows to change all of that. You're above the laws of mere mortals souls. You are Cupid, Cupid."
"The only thing I can change is how much longer I'll sleep. Awaken me when supper is ready. Good night. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day to you, Psyche. I love you."
"Cupid! Get up! What would your Grandfather Zeus say about you shirking your responsibility and staying in bed with the covers pulled over your head on of all days Valentine's Day?"
"Go away. Leave me alone, Psyche. I'm sick. I don't feel well."
"If you cannot do it for yourself, if you cannot do it for humanity, if you cannot do it for love, then you must do it for your father, Hephaestus and your mother Venus. Now get out of bed this instant. Now Cupid! Now!"
"Okay, okay, I'm getting up. I'm up. Give me a minute. Just quit your nagging. Nag, nag, nag, you're giving me a headache."
"Hurry or you'll be late."
"I'll be late anyway. The flight traffic flying down from Mount Olympus is going to be a nightmare this time of day with all those jumbo jets filled with tourists coming and going. I nearly got sucked in an engine yesterday. I had to fly like a bastard to get away from the suction of that thing," he said slumping back to the soft comfort of his bed and waving a hand of disinterest. "I'll go later."
"Eros!"
"Okay, Psyche, I'm up already. I'm up."
"What's wrong with you, Eros? Why are you suddenly like this? I thought you loved your job. I thought you loved helping people fall in love. I thought you loved Valentine's Day. I thought it made you happy to help those people who wouldn't ordinarily meet or who were too shy to fall in love. What happened to your sense of romance? You said you loved a happy ending."
"Well, now that you bring it up, to be honest, I don't like living here," said Cupid sitting up in bed. "You said when we moved here from Mount Olympus in Greece to Mount Olympus in the state of Washington that things would be better. You said we'd be closer to California and with less time spent commuting, I wouldn't be gone from home as long."
"It is better Cupid. You're not gone half the time you were when having to make those long transatlantic flights. Not to mention, now you're safe from all the times the United States thought you were a UFO and threatened to fire a nuclear missile at your ass."
"Notwithstanding the transatlantic flights and the potential missile attacks, you said California was where all the action is. Only, I'm wasting my arrows on people who marry three and four and more times. Zsa Zsa Gabor, Liz Taylor, the late Lana Turner, Mickey Rooney, and the late Robert Evens have had thirty-two wives and husbands between, thirty-two, Psyche. How in the name of Zeus did they remember all their names?"
"That's Hollywood for you, Cupid, but you can't allow the select and privileged few to ruin your good day. Today is Valentine's Day, the day of love, the dawning of romance for those you grace with your golden arrow."
"I don't mind saying, Psyche, that I'm tired of shooting arrows at Geena Davis and Billy Bob Thorton. They've been married ten times between them. These people don't know what love is. They get married for no other reason than to get married. I don't understand. It' baffles me."
"Agreed, Hollywood and LA is nothing like Greece, but you can change all that by making people fall in love. Forget about those people who have been married multiple times. Obviously, there's something wrong with those people, Cupid. I wouldn't waste any arrows on anyone married more than twice is how I feel about it. Maybe that should be your cutoff point."
"This isn't the country of love, it's the country of sex and divorce and with all the violence and drive-by shootings, it's the land of hatred. I want to go home to Greece. I hate this country. These people don't know what love is even after I shoot them in the ass with one of my arrows."
"You take things too personally, Cupid," said his wife. "When you return home to the mountaintop, you need to separate yourself from your work life and your personal life. You're just stressed. You need to find a hobby. You need to find a leisure activity, something that will take your mind off of your job. You need to find something to relax you and make you happy."