Outside Waiting: by Zoe Xanthippos Though Clio tried to persuade us to go about our own business, she might as well have been talking to the bench we were sitting on for all the response she got, as if she really thought we'd go away and leave her to the tender mercies of Elgon. Our magistrate could be quite generous and affable, as he had been the night before in the Taverna, but when it came to errant dead bodies, he was all business. Though I couldn't believe that he'd even consider for a moment that Clio might have done such a thing, I wasn't altogether sure that he wasn't harboring some grudge for what he'd considered our interference in his work in the past. I wasn't about to leave her, and I could see that Niobe and Amitressa felt the same way. I got up and began to pace. "Psst! Zoe!" I heard Lydia's voice calling me. I looked around trying to find her. "Over here!" she hissed. I followed the sound with my eyes and spotted her squatting on the ground in a shadow behind a bush. I started forward but she stopped me. "I slipped into the barricade behind you, but I don't want Elgon's goons to know I'm here. Just in case..." her voice trailed off. "Hmmm. Yes, I see your point, Lydia, but surely things won't come to that. Elgon is a reasonable man, and it's not like Clio's a stranger or anything." "Don't trust that man, Zoe! But go back to your bench. That guard over there is looking at you." Lydia shrank into a deeper shadow and I took her advice, going back to sit with Niobe and Ami. "What were you doing over there, Zoe?" Niobe asked curiously. "Oh, just trying to relax," I replied, not really knowing why I was lying to my friends. "They sure are taking a long time," Ami remarked. "I wonder what he's asking her?" Niobe worried. "I wish he'd hurry up and be done with her. She's upset enough without him browbeating her. It's not like she knows anything about any of this," I said, clenching my fists in my lap. ************************************************************************************** This story is an effort between several writers of our Athens Novel at PanHistoria. The main characters and writers of this story are Clio Aristocratos, (written by- herself) and Elgon Agis (written by- myself) The story started out to create a background past for Clio, and just developed into a life of it