The woman at the desk smiled at Derrick, and shooed him with her hand. "Go on now. See them to their rooms."
He took the cart and nodded to them. The hotel map said that the Trojan suite was three buildings away.
"It's quite a way. If you wish, you can ride," he offered. They looked up at him.
"Not yet," his father said. "But we might change our minds."
His mother nodded. Sharon, while still quite attractive, was still a bit softer than she had been in her youth, after two kids and a knee operation, and she didn't enjoy long walks. John, his father, was suffering from the middle-age spread caused by working at an office job and not doing any sports -- not that he had done them before. All of Derrick's athletic desires had come from school and his friends, and from seeing how unhappy his father was with his aging self.
Julie stared at him, frowned, and (as their parents moved toward the exit) she mouthed 'Derrick?' at him. He nodded and her eyes got huge. He shushed her and winked, and she giggled conspiratorially, which made their mother look over.
"Stop distracting the nice centaur and come along, or we'll never get to our room," she said. "I'd like to settle in before we have to make the trip back for the evening."
Derrick picked Julie up and set her on his back, and caught up, pushing the cart.
"Now don't spoil her," Sharon scolded. "Julie, don't you be wasting Mr. ... what WAS your name?"
"Rick," Derrick said.
"Oh? That's my son's nickname. He was doing a spa thing, I wonder if he's done yet?"
"What a coincidence. I'll have them send him over, when he's done." Derrick promised. "Are you sure you don't want a ride?"
"Oh, no," she said. "That would be imposing too much."
"I understand," Derrick said. "But it's no problem, really. I'm quite strong."
She shook her head, and they continued across the sidewalk and past the entrance to building B. A bus was pulling up to the gate and Derrick could see two young men in guard uniforms discussing something with the bus driver. A very large man stood, massive arms crossed, in front of a heavy wooden beam that blocked the entrance.
"I didn't notice that when we came in," Julie said, standing on Derrick's horse-back and holding onto his shoulder.
"This gate wasn't blocked then," John said. "Though, I remember seeing the same guards, there can't be two sets of twins and two men as large as that one. You and Derrick were asleep after all those pancakes for breakfast. We had a half hour drive from the entrance we came through."
The walk wasn't terrible, though it was getting a bit warm, and Derrick was noticing his mother was limping. He considered letting her know who he was, but she wasn't letting anyone know how sore she was, and he knew she'd just be angry if he said anything. Well. The place IS a spa, perhaps he could talk her into getting a massage. Probably one with less drastic effects.
"All the way to the end," John said. "OK."
There was a Minotaur here, who insisted on taking over the cart, so Derrick bent over and picked up both John and Sharon, one per arm, letting them sit.
"OH... Well. All right, if you insist," Sharon said, and John went red. "You ARE strong," he said.
"Yes, he is," Julie said and giggled again. They reached the end of the hall much sooner, and the Minotaur unlocked the room and let them inside. He nodded to Derrick and didn't stay for a tip.
The suite had an immense area inside with a table and couches and a kitchen to the side. The master bedroom was off one hall, and the two smaller rooms on the other side of the kitchen. Derrick helped carry the luggage to the different rooms, while Sharon was searching the cool-box for ice. They didn't have an actual electric refrigerator, but there was a large urn filled with ice and ice-water and she was able to get enough cold water on a towel to wrap around her knee and ankle.
John looked uncomfortably at Derrick, wondering how he could shoo away the helpful centaur. He knew that there were no gratuities, so he was wondering why the fellow was hanging around.
"Well. Thank you so much for your help," he said, trying to lead him to the door.
"Daddy!" Julia said. "Don't you recognize him?"
"What? No, why would I? He's one of the staff here, and that's... Oh my GOD!" he said as he recognized a birthmark on Derrick's arm. "Derrick? Is that YOU?"
Sharon looked up and her mouth fell open. "Oh! It IS you!! What have you ..."
"Spa treatment," Derrick said. "Very effective. Side effects. I'm supposed to take this now, though."
He took the bottle and read the label.
Hebe's Resumed Youth. Ten Years. For Derrick Anderson only.
He swigged it down -- it was like a single mouthful. It tasted like ginger and cayenne, burned in his throat, and he felt his skin hissing like water on a skillet, but there wasn't any pain. The world got larger around him, though. He went from five feet from waist to shoulder, down to three feet, and his musculature and his horse-size shrank with him. He felt gawkier. His horse-boots were suddenly too large, and he was glad he'd gotten the smaller set.
"Oh!" Sharon said. "But you're still a ... oh dear."
"No, horse," he said. "I'm a centaur, Mom."
"Well, how are we going to ..."
"Mom, don't worry. They said we won't have trouble with it," Derrick said. Although that wasn't QUITE true.
"This happened because of the spa treatment?"
"Yeah, they said they could make me a better athlete, and they did." Derrick flexed. He was still much larger than a kid his age would be, and he thought, still a bit bigger than the twins were, rather than MUCH bigger, even though his waist was now the same as theirs. Or so he presumed.
"Mom, can I be a centaur too?" Julie asked.
"No, honey," Sharon said. "We won't be ..."
"They might be able to help you with your knee," John said. He was feeling flushed and confused. He looked for the first time at the "welcome" pamphlet that was sitting on a coffee table.
"Mount Olympus Spa -- the ultimate destination for rejuvenation, regeneration, and recreation. Feel like a new you," he read. Derrick crossed his arms and grinned, as Julie crawled up on his back again.
"Really?" he said to her.
"You're my brother, and they won't let me have a horse," she replied.
"I suppose. But you have to brush me."
"You have ridonkulous hair," she said, looking at the heavy flow of his mane from the top of his head down his back. His tail was also far too lush. "You look like a My Little..."
"DON'T ... Say it," he threatened. "I have Drum Horse hair. It's supposed to be like that."
John had moved over to sit next to Sharon, and was showing her several pages in the brochure.
"Maybe we can ..." (whisper mumble.)
Julie yawned. "Carry me to my room, steed," she commanded, and Derrick laughed. "Whatever. I'm going to see if any of my clothes fit me now."
"Your pants won't," she said as they went through the door to their own smaller area.
"Yeah, well, horses don't wear pants," he retorted, and she laughed.
"You still owe me a brushing," he said. Their doors closed.
"What are we going to do about him?" Sharon asked, beginning to worry and fret.
"I don't know if there's anything we need to do," John said. "I get the feeling that he's going to grow up to be a fine man, or horse-man, anyway. Isn't that all that matters?"
"I suppose. So do you really want to try the Rejuvenation Spa, or would you like to try one of the other things?
"I think the Apples of Youth Beauty Masque couldn't possibly make you more beautiful to me," John said in that tone that made his children gag if they were in the room... Sharon smiled at it, instead. "But the Aesculapian Remedy sounds like just what you need for that arthritic hip and the unhappy knee and the perpetually sprained ankle."
"And the Spartan Day Spa for you?"
"I dunno," John said. "Spartans were kind of ..."
"Hot. But I remember that BBC television special too. They were not ... nice ... people."
"Let's just see what they recommend for us at the consulting desk."
"Not looking forward to that walk back."
"Well, our son isn't big enough to carry both of us, but I'm sure he'd be happy to let you ride him back over."
There was a jug of sun-tea brewing on the patio with a note saying "For the Andersons" and John pulled it inside, and then realized that from the patio, there was a much shorter path back to the central "agora" of the place, much easier to get to the spa area in Building A. The heat of the day broke soon enough, and it was beginning to get a bit darker when they could see that there was an open-air meal being served.
They decided to go eat. Derrick was wearing an Aloha shirt over an Olympus Spa tight-tee, and had somehow managed to put a baseball cap on his head. Julie was in her ordinary tomboy gear. And John and Sophie were in their loud touristy outfits that matched the loud touristy outfits of several other people their age.
The servers were all satyrs and nymphs, and the cook was a very good looking young man with grape leaves woven into a Gilligan-style hat, wearing an apron that said "Wine the Cook" and some sort of kilt. There was a pad of check-off-entree sheets for food. It was custom-cooking, apparently, and people were checking off what they wanted, and handing their order to a wild-eyed woman with the name "Minnie" on her shirt, and who was singing and dancing around but somehow managed to be there to take the orders and hand them a grape leaf with a number painted on it. She pointed them toward a seating area, where there were pitchers of what smelled like juice, on a variety of tables, large and small. Most of the tables were already taken up by other guests, some of whom were staring at Derrick and at the satyrs and nymphs like they hadn't ever seen a mythical creature before.
"Chef Dony will have your order ready when it's ready," Minnie said to the Andersons. "Sit and have a drink."
"How late are the Spa sections open, Derrick?" Sophia asked.
He shrugged, and said, "Let me go check. I wanted to find the guys again anyway."
He went inside, and found that Hebe was still at her desk.
"Hi! This is amazing, thank you so much," he said to her.
"Oh, it's my pleasure," she answered. "Now, we've got a slot for your mother here tonight at seven-thirty, so don't let Dony get her drunk or she won't make it. And your father ... he's going to need some special work. Give this to Dony and tell him it's for John Anderson, and nobody else. And your sister ... we don't know what she wants yet."
She handed him a little glass phial filled with a reddish-purple liquid that gleamed under the lights.
"The boys will be off-duty around ten tonight. They normally work out in the Gymnasion before they rest."
Derrick grinned and said, "Hope to see them then. Maybe if Julie's still awake I can bring her there. She'd like it. She's quite a tomboy."
Hebe waved at him as he went back outside.