Sip Of Immortality

Mr. Johnson, a widower millionaire living in Manhattan, led a simple yet stressful life. He was a generous man who found joy in helping the poor. Mr. Johnson had a kind heart but feared the possibility that upon his death, his children would have a disagreement over the distribution of his property, as they hated each other.

Up in the skies, discussions of another sort of distribution were taking place in Olympus, where 12 Greek gods lived. Gods couldn't die but could fade away if forgotten, which was what had just occurred in Olympus. Olympus moved around the earth but at the moment was atop the Empire State Building on the six-hundredth floor. Nemesis, the goddess of balance, had faded away as her children had forgotten about her and joined the monster forces who were against the gods. Now Olympus needed a kind-hearted replacement for this job, so Zeus, king of the gods and Lord of the Sky, ordered the cupbearer to the gods, Ganymede, to find a kind-hearted mortal who would be made a god of balance. Since Ganymede was the cupbearer to the gods, he owned a chalice from which one sip of its nectar could turn any mortal immortal!

Ganymede was thinking hard about how to find the right person for the job. He got the perfect idea to disguise himself as an old man and see who would help him. He went down to earth to test his selection method and sat as an old beggar in the cold streets of Manhattan. Hours passed, and people were just passing through without paying any heed.

Mr. Johnson was also walking that night on the same street, very upset as he had just seen his children fight. In his state of depression, he saw Ganymede as an old hungry beggar with torn clothes. 

Mr. Johnson, being the kind man that he was, went to help him and gave him money but then saw his state and thought it wasn't enough. Since it was cold, he first took him to a clothes shop and got him a jacket and some clothes. Then, he took him to a restaurant and got him some soup as it was a chilly night. Ganymede thought he had found his guy, and through the steam of the soup, Ganymede started the conversation about turning immortal. Mr. Johnson was elated when he told Ganymede about his fear and how his children hated each other. Ganymede told him that if he took the post of the god of balance, he would be able to distribute everything evenly among the children. However, there was a problem: he had to live on Olympus.

Mr. Johnson was quite sorrowful to leave his family, but he could bring justice to the world, so he accepted it and took a sip of the nectar in the chalice. He could feel a change in his body. He felt stronger and unbeatable. Ganymede was ready to leave for the Empire State Building immediately, but Mr. Johnson asked for a while to say his goodbyes to his family. He quickly went home and met his family, telling them that he would be back for dinner, but obviously, that wasn't the plan.

After the goodbyes, Mr. Johnson and Ganymede left for the Empire State Building. On the way, Mr. Johnson had a strange feeling about running out on his family. Ganymede noticed Mr. Johnson's anxiousness, so he calmed him with his favorite drink, lemonade. Mr. Johnson asked him how he knew his likes and dislikes, to which Ganymede smirked and replied that it was his job to know what gods like.

Ganymede and Mr. Johnson started exchanging stories, in which Ganymede informed him about how he had become a god; he was pulled up to the skies by Zeus because of his beauty, and due to this reason, he had made many enemies along the way.

When they reached the Empire State Building, Mr. Johnson realized there were only 102 floors and wondered how they would get to the six-hundredth floor. To this, Ganymede started laughing and said, "Watch and learn, my friend."

When they reached the reception, Ganymede showed his Olympian badge, and the guy said, "What's up, G-man? Have we changed another mortal to an immortal?" Ganymede proudly announced, "Yup!" Mr. Johnson stood silent and felt his eyes open wide at the realization.

They then proceeded to the elevator where there were only 102 buttons. Mr. Johnson asked, "Now what?" and Ganymede said, "We all follow Lord Zeus." Suddenly, a red button appeared labeled 600. Mr. Johnson was so stunned that he was about to have a heart attack. They pressed the button, and it started shooting up to the skies. In the elevator, Ganymede explained the protocol to Mr. Johnson: First to bow down to Zeus, secondly to Hera, queen of gods (and also wife of Zeus,) and third to bow down to Poseidon, who was Zeus's brother, lord of the sea.

When Mr. Johnson entered Olympus, he was flabbergasted as he hadn't seen anything as mesmerizing and magical. He almost forgot to bow down to the gods. All the gods were extremely tall. Even Ganymede shot up in size upon entering Olympus.

Olympus gods were 20 feet tall, but while in the outside world, they turned into mortal size and disguised themselves as humans, animals, or whatever they needed to be. Surprisingly, Zeus didn't impress Mr. Johnson due to his aloof and laid-back posture, whereas the other gods were sitting up straight, fiercely and gracefully, as gods should be sitting. After observing Olympus and the gods, Mr. Johnson bowed down to all three gods as instructed by Ganymede. Zeus was updated about Mr. Johnson's past by Ganymede. Knowing how attached he was to his children, Zeus warned Mr. Johnson that there would be no turning back once he had been made a god, to which Mr. Johnson reluctantly agreed. Zeus started chanting a spell, and before Mr. Johnson knew it, he was 20 feet tall and was looking eye to eye with all the gods. Zeus congratulated him on becoming god of balance, and suddenly he could feel the power of being a god in his blood. Zeus gave him his godly name, Sophorious, meaning wise in maintaining balance. Zeus, through another magical spell, transferred all necessary information to Sophorious so he could commence his godly duties.

As Sophorious' first mission or godly duty, Ganymede requested Sophorious to bring balance between him and the rest of the Olympians as they were jealous of his beauty. Sophorious felt bad for him and after a lot of thought, he couldn't think of anything else, so he turned Ganymede ugly with pimples and rashes all over his face. Ganymede got scared and angrily said, "Yo man, what have you done? I don't want to be ugly." Just then Zeus entered, and he was confused as to who Ganymede was, and asked who he was. By this time, he was crying, and while crying, he told Zeus what happened. Even Zeus couldn't resist but laugh. 

Zeus sat Sophorious down and told him that this was no way to balance things. Sophorious asked, "Now what shall I do?" and Zeus told him to change Ganymede back to normal. Sophorious innocently obeyed and changed him back. Then Zeus advised him to go to all the gods and explain to them that Ganymede was beautiful and that there was no reason not to like him as he was very noble at heart.

Sophorious agreed but first, he comforted Ganymede and apologized to him. Sophorious then went off to tell all the gods about Ganymede. It was a tough job, but that was the least he could do for his friend. Later that night, Ganymede and Sophorious were laughing about the incident that day, and he also told Ganymede a secret that the gods were very stubborn. Ganymede replied saying, "What do you know? I have lived here for centuries coping with these difficult creatures!"

All the gods eventually started appreciating Ganymede, and he finally got the respect he earned after all; he was the one who quenched their thirst.

Days passed, and Mr. Johnson hadn't returned to his home and was now presumed dead by his family, who were extremely disturbed by his sudden absence. As Mr. Johnson had feared, there was a distribution problem among his children, and now he had understood to do things calmly, so he distributed the property evenly and slowly and gradually brought love into the hearts of his children for each other. In no time, they were the children which Mr. Johnson's late mortal wife would have loved to see.

In Sophorious' mortal world, his wife had really supported him, and to have support in the immortal world and also start an immortal family and to have an heir to his throne, Sophorious liked the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite. The feeling was mutual as she was attracted to his kindness, and they both wanted to start a life together. Soon after becoming comfortable in the world of the gods, they both got married.

After Zeus saw how patiently and confidently Sophorious handled the situation in his family, he decided to assign him the task of bringing balance in the war between The Republic of Guluna and The State of Khumariyaan. When Zeus told Sophorious of his new assignment, Sophorious was a little double-minded, but after Zeus gave him a pep talk, he buckled up and had the courage to go and balance the peace between the two.

All the gods cheered for him as he thought of a strategy to stop it. First, he thought he should find out what they were fighting about, then found out that there was a piece of land which the Khumariyaan had captured but the Republic of Guluna claimed was theirs. Then he found out that half of it came in Khumariyaan territory while the other half fell in the Guluna territory. After thorough research, he thought he should go to talk to leaders of both sides and try to convince them to go in peace.

Before leaving, Zeus reminded him there was no need to turn people ugly, and everybody laughed. Sophorious left for the negotiations, and after some time, the government of Guluna listened but they just wanted their part of the land and a fair distribution. Khumariyaan stayed put and refused to cooperate, which led Sophorious to the last option to weaken the army of Khumariyaan. This led Khumariyaan to surrender, and Sophorious divided the land equally, which made both sides happy.

After the war had subsided, Sophorious fixed all the damage he had done to Khumariyaan. Everyone in Olympus was proud of Sophorious.

These were just a few among many things Sophorious did to balance the worlds. In no time, Sophorious knew everything about the Greek gods and learned all their traditions. Even though he was considered one of the minor gods, that didn't stop him from thinking big and bringing big changes in both worlds. Zeus made Sophorious head of all minor gods, and as the head, he gave all the minor gods the respect they deserved.

Despite this new magical and exciting world, not a single day would go by when Sophorious wouldn't miss his mortal children. He would take up different disguises, from delivering mail as the postman to being the grocery man, just to get a glimpse of his children, and when he learned that they continued missing his presence, it was heart-wrenching for him. He then realized that as the god of balance, he hadn't been very fair to his children. 

It was not fair to remove the presence of a father from his children before the designated time. When his guilt was eating him up and the memories of his children filled his heart with sorrow, he went and requested Zeus to free him from his godly duties and let him live with his children as their father. Zeus reminded Sophorious that at the time of getting his title, he was informed of the consequences and the sacrifices he would have to make at the cost of getting this immortal life and status. Zeus told him that he could only give him sympathy and nothing more.

Sophorious, who now longed to become the simple Mr. Johnson, was here, in a world filled with duties, responsibilities, and an endless life which he had to uphold. He realized that nothing came free, and life-changing sacrifices are sometimes the price we have to pay for our dreams to fulfill and to lay our fears to rest. The only source of comfort in this situation was his loving wife Aphrodite, for whom he was very grateful. He was now focused on making Aphrodite happy and with her by his side, he would fulfill all his duties with dedication and fairness.

Although Sophorious learned to balance his own existence between two worlds, finding peace in his eternal duty, there still are nights when he looks down at the earth and wonders whether Mr. Johnson should have had a sip of immortality that night, or whether he should have walked past the old hungry man on that cold night in Manhattan.