[ WP ] All the gods of myth and legend are real , but having your prayers answered depends on discovering which god can hear you . You figured out which god is listening to your prayers , but they 're not what you expected .

Everyone stood up from their desk as the clock struck 12. All across the office, everyone was pulling out their paraphenalia. 
 
 Jenny from accounting bowed her head and folded her hands around the cross tucked into her ample bosom. Jon was right next to her, pulling out his long red prayer scarf and wrapping it slowly, methodically, around his wrists. While that piercing, twitching, clicking sound was Mirtle's purple prayer beads tapping against each other just behind me. 
 Just to my right Jocelyn was stripping down to a gauzey dress to offer herself to her fertility goddess. She always made quite a show with sprinkling herself in black dirt from the earth. Jake was right next to her, wiping stray dirt from his prayer mat. He lifted his arms above his head, and then bowed down, with a little muttered prayer to Chronos. 
 
 I stood rigid as I always did, my eyes ticking along with the office clock. 
 
 300 seconds. I pulled at my collar, feeling a wave of heat rise to my head. 270 seconds. I rolled my head back and forth from my left to my right shoulder, keeping my eyes fixed on the clock. 240 seconds. I closed my eyes, and licked my lips, feeling an empty moment of stillness descend on me. 210 seconds. A prayer came to my lips. 180 seconds.'*Release*', I whispered. 150 seconds. My eyes whipped open, my mouth broken up into a smile. 120 seconds. I whip around and strangle Mirtle with a purple cross of beaded thread. 90 seconds. I vault over the table, grab Jon's red prayer scarf and lash down a helpless Jenny to her chair. 60 seconds. I flash over to Jocelyn, and bend her backward over Jon's prone form for a deep deep kiss. 30 seconds. I hear blood rushing through my ears in a whisper:'*Catharsis rises again. *' 
 

