Looking for Mars

Not this one.

“Susan, I need you to find this guy who works for the Department of Ecology,” my boss said to me. He sat behind his shiny ponderous desk, blue gaze serious.

“Okay,” I said, notepad at the ready. “Who am I looking for?”

“Mars,” he said.

Uh…?

The god of war?

He shook his head.

“I don’t have a last name. Just the first name, referred to me from someone at the Department of Fisheries. Seems the duties have shifted around within the departments. Can you track him down for me?”

I considered this request. My imagination took over. What’s it like growing up named after a god *and* a planet? Is his sister named Jupiter? Does he get teased about having an adversarial personality? Does he sport red hair and/or freckles? Maybe he’s really good at Risk.

I’ve been asked to do a lot of things in my varied working life. I scrounged up a keg of saki at the last minute. I found a stuffed salmon for a client’s little girl. I’ve acquired a fair amount of grant money for special projects from obscure sources. Needle in a haystack? On it. I can do that.

However, it’s not every day you search for a planet or an angry god right here on earth. Truth be told, I turned up empty. Not because I didn’t want to. I got redirected to another avenue of getting information. But I did find this. I’ve written about it before, yet thought it deserved another mention.

What are you looking for today?