So It Began

I remember as if it were happening now. Tears sliding down her cheeks, powdered with ash. One couldn't help but to be drawn in to her crippling grief. As the world around her was being consumed with devastation and chaos, she stood still in silence gripping something ever so tightly in her hand. I pulled myself up slowly and shook the rubble off. Never could I have imagined such grave suffering and anguish, but we were warned. I thought about all the apocalyptical movies and the various ways they tried to depict the end of the world. In that moment I realized that they were all right.

As a child I would always hear people say, "The end is coming soon!", which made me even more the sceptic, as I began to question exactly how soon is soon? Signs were given when nature started to take it's frustration out with humankind in forms of great disasters. Hurricanes strengthening stronger than a category five and dormant volcanos suddenly erupting. After the 2020 pandemic, governments could no longer stand to support their people and viruses were what determined if we could so much as hug our loved ones. We refused to listen.

So there we stood in the midst of what we thought was the end. As the ground below our feet began to open up to take it's prisoners alive. I watched as she tried to save her mother from falling in, but only being able to cling to her necklace while she watched helplessly as her family disappeared into the earth without a trace. That red locket now hangs proudly from her neck guarding the last image of the world that once was. We both lost everything and everyone on the day of Devastation, I my daughter, and her, both her parents, so it was only natural that we would form our own family.

We were able to fashion shelter from a half burned brick house and using bits and pieces from other fallen houses to rebuild the walls and a roof. Food obviously was scarce, a rare commodity usually only experienced once or twice a week on a winner takes all basis. Lucas, our area chief, wouldn't allow any of us to indulge more often than that since it was his belief that doing so would only make it harder to survive a slow week. Once, I overheard his right hand man talking about the last person who tried to sneak something extra. Let's just say, I keep the rules gladly!

Masha didn't understand a word of English at first, and being only two years old, her Russian wasn't the best either. Communication among each other now resembles somewhat of a caveman style with gestures and grunts taking the lead over eloquent words. My teaching days were long gone, but somehow it snuck it's way back in trying to connect with Masha. "Mama Fay, Lucas is coming!", Masha yelled out to me. I thought to myself, "What now?", what could we have possibly done that was out of line.

He entered the house, stooping through the door as he stood well over 6 feet tall. His demeanor was calm yet terrifying. He wasn't the kind of man that would easily lose a poker game in the Old World. As He questioned strategically about our food consumption I was careful to answer everything precisely. Then, I watched as his eyes gazed upon Masha's locket and locked in. Quickly, he got up and ran over to her and then began shaking her rapidly. He was hollering something repeatedly in Russian that I couldn't make sense of. He held the locket in his hands, opened it, and began crying. I got the idea that he somehow recognized it from the Old World, but what did this mean for Masha and me?

"I have been searching for my sister ever since that day and I eventually gave up hope. It's been 5 long years, but I could recognize that locket from anywhere! Lily never took it off since the day Ma put it on her.", Lucas explained as he took Masha in his arms tightly. I was at a loss for words. Masha wasn't ever allowed to go near Lucas for I feared he would have chosen her eventually to be in his camp. This bittersweet news was a relief being we were no longer under critique, but now an even greater problem presented itself. What if he chooses to take her away from me? How could I survive without the baby girl I risked my own survival to protect? Destiny brought us together and now fate dares to tear us apart?

The answer was clear. I thought back on what I read once in the Forbidden Books of the Old and New Testaments; a story about a baby names Moses. I quickly asked, "Would you like me to move our things into your camp where I can continue to care for her while you handle everything else?". He smiled. He smiled? "Absolutely!", he exclaimed. I sighed in relief and thought, now nothing ever could tear me away from my family ever again. What once was an end, started my new beginning.