Cheryll sat down on the bench of the Forum in Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace. The sky above her had changed from dusk till dawn in the space of half an hour and the light was brightening again. She slurped her diet coke and watched the shop window in front of her. In it were three mannequins. The one on the left had long brown hair and wore a jeans and orange sweater. She had her hand tucked into a pocket and a large bag slung over her arm. The one in the middle, with long dark hair, sunglasses, dressed in white, stood on a pedestal with one foot on a block. The third one wore leather pants and a blue top, showing her belly button.

Cheryll watched the mannequins and felt there was somehow something wrong with them. Their faces looked a bit strange and they were different. Perhaps they were custom-made?

And then the middle one reached for its face and scratched and the one on the right blinked. They were real women, Cheryll smiled to herself in pleasant surprise. She pulled out her camera and took a few pictures. And then she heard music coming from the fountain and she looked in that direction.

The white marble fountain was adorned with statues of the Roman deities. Bacchus sat in the middle, a chubby man with a laurel wreath and a cup in his hands. Around were other gods she couldn't place that quickly. And then, to her surprise Bacchus blinked and began to move. As did the other gods. They summoned a laser show projected on the ceiling. Bacchus invoked Apollo, god of the sun, to bring the new dawn. She took a set of pictures and watched the almost lifelike animatronic figures come to life and become statues again in the space of five minutes.

Sufficiently rested, she got up, took two steps and slid over the ice-cream a kid had just dropped. Before she knew what happened, her head hit the hard marble floor and she fainted.

"Are you all right?" a voice said.

Cheryll woke up, but didn't say anything.

"At last some time to ourselves," a woman's voice said.

She opened her eyes and saw she was still in the Forum. But she felt something was wrong with her vantage point. It was as if she was standing on the fountain. In front of her, the shops were closed and there was nobody to be seen, except for her and the other statues.

Wait a minute! she thought to herself, and looked at herself. Her skin was pure white and she was wearing a golden skirt.

"Is something wrong?" She felt a touch and saw a tall male statue smile at her.

He stepped from the fountain and held out his hand to help her get off her pedestal. Still shaken up, she reached out and jumped from the fountain on the hard marble floor.

"I must be dreaming," she said.

"How?" the god asked.

"I'm not a statue, I'm a tourist," she said.

The statue stared at her and looked puzzled. "Surely, Venus, you must be jesting?"

"No, my name's Cheryll!" she said, walking over to a window to look at herself in.

Her mouth dropped open when she saw her reflection.

"It seems as if you have seen Medusa?" the statue asked.

Cheryll stared at herself in the window. Her skin was pure white, with the milky constancy of marble. Her hair and body felt stiff and hard, yet she was fully capable of movement.

She felt hands on her shoulders and a kiss in her neck.

"Still flirting, eh?" A jolly Bacchus held his cup in his hands and took a good sip.

Apollo smiled and held Cheryll so tenderly she began to relax. She'd always liked men to hold her gently, but few ever did. None of her ex-boyfriends for example.

"If ever beauty was given form, you were the model," Apollo said, and kissed her tenderly again.

She sighed deeply and went with the flow.

"Let me bestow you a gift," Apollo said, guiding her towards a jewelry shop.

Holding each other, they walked along the displayed jewelry and Cheryll was about to make a choice when Apollo snorted. "None of these baubles are fit for you!"

Cheryll wanted to say something but Apollo merely cupped his hands, which suddenly erupted into light, illuminating his handsome marble face.

Cheryll watched and saw how a large golden bracelet formed in his hands.

"For you," Apollo said, gently putting it round her arm.

Pure gold, and finely chiseled it looked like an ancient bracelet, appropriately heavy.

"I can't take this gift ..." Cheryll protested, but Apollo put his finger on her lips.

"Hush, let's not discuss good manners here, but instead revel in our freedom of movement. Enjoy our divinity as we did, so many centuries ago."

His firm hands grasped the straps of her short golden skirt and slipped it off.

Cheryll looked down and saw she was an anatomically correct statue, if a bit hairless.

Apollo straightened himself and showed off his muscular body.

"Oh what the fuck!" Cheryll went inside her head, and went for it.

With all her femininity, she grasped his loincloth and gently let it slip, revealing his bulging manhood.

She paused for a second and went over how big it looked.

But then he lifted her head by her chin and approached her pale lips.

A warm glow seemed to grow inside her and she felt a rush unlike anything she had ever experienced. It was a if she had been pushed underwater for the first time, but the sensation was not at all unpleasant. And then the universe threw open its doors and Cheryll knew she was a goddess...

She raced with Apollo through the heavens, past colorful planets and bright suns and consumed their union with the creation of a new star in the heavens.

Cheryll woke up in a bed. After a few seconds of disorientation, she realized she was in a hospital bed. With a king-size bump on her head.

Something inside her went: "I told you so, it's only a dream."

But a sensation on her arm made her almost say: "Look!"

She swore she could hear Nelson, that nagging kid from the Simpsons Huh-hing her as she realized it was a medical bracelet.

The door opened and a nurse came in.

"You're awake. You took a nasty fall back there," the nurse said. "Here are your things." She placed a bag on her table.

"Thanks," Cheryll smiled and sighed. "Why was it only a dream?" she mumbled to herself.

But then she caught a glimpse of metal when she put the bag aside.

She almost tore it open, and saw the golden bracelet...

Archivist's Note: The index page originally gave the title of this story as "Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum", but that was obviously wrong because all the main action takes place on the Forum and not on the way to it. --Leem, 2012