Xanthic #atozchallenge #Ukraine #fiction

As he walked back to the church with a small bag representing all of our belongings, my husband exhaled. Had he looked up, he would have seen the sickly Xanthic (yellow) hues. No one could look up because of things falling from the sky and who wanted to know that chemicals could be adding to the danger…

Additionallly—He didn’t want to think about the Russian Navy that was once again closing in to the Odessa port. How long? he muttered, a day maybe two?

Exasperated, he set the bag down next to me. He plopped himself down and expressed all the pent- up frustrations of the last several months. He held my hand and I listened as best I could. Occasionally, I squeezed his hand which was as much energy as I could exert.

Olga came over to see if I needed anything and walked out again not wanting to be part of his explosion of feelings.

I don’t know how long it went on but he finally wore himself down and crumpled on my mattress.

“Vlad has taken a trip. You understand.” He said to the men. “Not sure but there was a problem.”

Several of the men were from 1991 and stood up. “We go help!!!”

“No entrance for now.” My husband tried to extinguish their excitement.

“We wait then.” Yevhen said.

“Yes and continue runs to Mariople.” My husband looked in the men’s faces.

“Mariople is like Passage. No entrance.” One of the soldiers spoke up. “Some guys still there.” He waved toward the east.

“They know what to do.” My husband said confidently.

“Yevhen, what do the men do now?” my husband looked at Vlad’s newly appointed leader.

“We rest then go back and find way in.” Yevhen walked to the kitchen to get some food before sleep.

The men followed him.

I laid on my mattress trying not to rattle my brain with all the possible outcomes in Mariople and to add to that on the other side of the Time Portal in 1991.

My husband was reading my mind. “Vlad is a trained warrior and I realized so is Valeria.”

I opened my eyes and mouthed “That sweet girl…”

“Yes, sweet girls are having to exercise great courage as they fight in this war and apparently in the war on the other side of the Portal…”