Cosmic Café 20:
Kidnapped by Pluto

I stepped out into a warm, breezy spring evening, fishing through my purse for my keys. As it turned out, however, keys wouldn't be necessary because my car was gone. I crossed the street to where I'd parked, maybe thinking it would reappear by the time I got there. Nope. Still no car.

Okay…so maybe one of my celestial friends was having some fun with me. I walked up one side of the block and down the other, but I was sure I had parked right across from Saturn's door, and it definitely wasn't there now.

Okay, now what? I looked back at the Café, but it was dark. I wasn't sure what this was about—life, after all, had been a bit odd lately, ever since I'd been visiting the Café. I crossed my arms and tried to decide who'd done it. Was it one of Mercury's practical jokes? He was, after all, "the trickster" of ancient days. He very well might have decided to take my car hostage—just for grins. Or maybe it was Uranus. As the King of the Unpredictable, he specialized in providing the last thing on Earth you'd ever expect—and he was sitting right on my Ascendant at the moment, so one never knew what might happen next. But neither answer "felt" right. There was something else going on here, and it was starting to make me a bit nervous. I should call Jupiter. I pulled out my cell-phone just as a vehicle drove up. It was a long, sleek, black limousine with glowing opera lights. The limo stopped, and a chauffeur in a crisp, navy blue suit came around to open the door. “Car for you, miss,” he said, nodding politely.

I was stunned. "Me? No…I didn't order a car."

The chauffeur didn't budge. He smiled and said, "Oh, I'm definitely here for you, miss. May I help you in?"

I didn't know whether to run or take his extended hand. I was about to call Jupiter and ask what was going on when I realized there was someone in the back seat. I bent over and peered through the door at a man in black—just seconds before someone pushed me into the limo. The man in the back seat wrapped a blindfold around my eyes before I could even sit up. Okay, this wasn't funny any more. I was terrified. Maybe it wasn't a planetary prank going on—maybe I was actually being kidnapped. My heart pounded wildly in my chest as the man pulled me up on the seat next to him—and the limo took off.

Neither of us spoke. I was trying to get my breathing under control, trying to figure out what was going on. Who would want to kidnap me? Suddenly, it hit me. It was Pluto—the mythical kidnapper who'd snatched Persephone away from her mom one fine sunny day while the two were out picking flowers. Pluto. The Head of the Department of Sex, Death, Power, Control—all that good stuff. But what could he possibly want with me? Was I about to die?

"You're not dying," he said, reading my mind. "We're just going for a ride. Think of it as a field trip. "

A ride with Pluto. I took a deep breath, gathered my courage together, and said. "Okay, but could we take this blindfold off?"

"Sure. All you had to do was ask. "As he untied the blindfold, I wondered which form he'd chosen to "wear" for our meeting. The options weren't very appetizing, either. When I thought of Pluto, I thought of dark, scary creatures of the night—vampires, and werewolves and monsters. The blindfold fell on my lap, and I turned to look into the face of the Lord of the Underworld…

Next Week: A Field Trip With The Lord of Darkness

Kim Rogers-Gallagher is a well known columnist, lecturer and author of Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain and Astrology for the Light Side of the Future(ACS Publications).