Farewell Araxes

I feel cold.



I found myself floating high above the farm where I grew up.  Fields thick with grain, surging in the breeze. Cows in the pasture.

My home.

I came to rest near the old train engine where my brother Hector and I used to play. How it got in this field I will never know.


This was our spaceship. Hector was the captain and I was his crew.

No matter how pink and frilly the dresses my mother put me in, it was here that she would find me, laughing and climbing after my big brother.

Persephone Siamendes! You get down from there right this instant!

I walked to the edge of the field. There was a table and a radio set like my eldest brother Demetrios used to have.  I dare not touch it. Demetrios would be very cross with me.



Demetrios left home when I was still young.  After mother and Hector died, and father took ill, he returned to the family farm and that set me free to join the service.

Demetrios gave me the stars.



The radio came alive. I could hear a voice I recognized. I leaned forward straining to make sense of what I heard.  I frowned.  It was the voice of Major Aodhfionn Muircastle, the nephew of my commanding officer. But what he said made no sense.

The scene changed and I was sitting at our dining room table.  There was the cabinet with my mother’s best China. There was music playing. Vivaldi. The third movement of “L'inverno.”  Violin Concerto No. 4 in F Minor.

Oh that's why I felt so cold before.
 

Before me was an open book containing pencil drawings. There was a drawing of a girl’s face. She looked so familiar.
 

Audrey?



Then we should get you home.

-----

July 5



“Sergeant,” asked Major Muircastle, “is there any paperwork that says we’re supposed to fix up Major Siamendes here or ship her off as is?”



“We are still waiting to hear from the Colonel, sir,” replied a woman.