****
"GALLANT!"
"Hello, Julie. Brrr. March Eighth is a lot colder here."
"Hurry. Get inside. You'll freeze your ears. How did you find me? Dumb question."
"How did you end up in Fairbanks, Alaska?"
"Jim. He loves it here. It's home. Now, you've got something bothering you. Tell Aunt Julie."
He smiled. She still knew him. She'd matured well. She was even more beautiful at forty-eight than she had been at twenty-four. He told her about the dreams, but he didn't tell her how long they'd been haunting him.
"Athena. Gallant, is this the dream that gave you your name?"
"Perceptive as ever. Yes. It's become insistent. I'm about to start in ancient Greece and look up every Athena who ever lived!"
"You're sure she's human?"
"Never found the name in any other culture."
"Wait a minute! Knew I heard a bell. Jim said something about an Athena. Last night... Yes! A lecturer at the University. No, she can't be the one. She's a geneticist. Plump and seventy-ish. Maybe she's got a granddaughter. Silly. There must be thousands of Athenas."
"True, but I had to come here. Now. Ah, hello, you must be Jim."
"And you can only be Gallant. Welcome. I've been waiting to meet you for a very long time. You're responsible for my meeting Julie."
"I am?!"
"Yes. I delivered a pepperoni pizza to her on March eighth in ninety-two and stayed to find out why she was smiling and crying. Never left. She was the most beautiful girl I ever met and her best friend was an angel named Gallant. She was either crazy or special. Took me at least two seconds to decide which."
"Took him two hours to propose."
"Took you two hours to get dressed."
"We got married March Eighth, Gallant. Twenty-three years ago. In Las Vegas."
"That's the most wonderful story I ever heard."
"WOW! It's him, isn't it?"
"Yes Alice, it's him. Gallant, our daughter Alice. Your oldest Godchild."
"You, my dear, are as beautiful as your mother."
"You're right, Mom. He definitely knows how to deliver a compliment. So, Gallant, how are you at hugs?"
"Come here and I'll let you decide."