RETURN TO POLTAVA

  

 Day 161, Poltava (2022)

The time had come to report back to her unit. He was staying behind as his right leg was still recovering after being shattered in March. Alone, they embraced hard at the end of the drive. Their daughter Mila had run off in tears to the back fields when her mother broke the news. 

Finally, she gently pushed away and began walking the half mile to the pickup point near town. He stood there, watching the back of her head with her hair in a bun topped with an olive-green beret. He was close to tears when she quickly whirled around and placed her hand on her heart before turning back. He smiled and waved. 

This was all seen by Mila who had returned from the fields. Her father's smile broadened as she walked up and gave him a hug.  "For now, at least," she thought, "I still have two parents and this is all that matters." Together, arm in arm, they watched their loved one disappear around the bend by the field of sunflowers.

Day 1658 (August 2026)

Mila hadn't returned to her childhood home in a couple of years. After both her parents were killed in action, she joined a local drone battalion when she turned 18. She had been wounded and chose to do her final convalescence there. Little had changed about the house after Mila boarded it up before she was deployed and the fields had gone fallow. She was pleased to see, when she reached the familiar bend in the road near the house, that sunflowers were still being cultivated. She stopped the car as her head began to fill with memories. It was a quiet day, a lull in the recent, relentless drone attacks by the Russians. She reflected on the cost of this war upon her people:125,000-150,000 KIA with triple those numbers in wounded. Yet the Ukrainians had held and inflicted massive casualties on the Russians but Mila wondered how much longer they could endure. The Americans had deserted them and NATO, with their own internal issues, were now dithering. What a waste, she thought. All because of one terrible man who had no regard for the lives of others. All for his personal, delusional dream of a renewed Soviet empire.Her ruminations were interrupted by the sound of birds. A flock of goldfinches had flown into the sunflowers for a snack. Remembering their beautiful markings and sweet calls, Mila sat watching them as her mind shifted and began to relax. Happy memories of her folks and home flowed into her for the first time in years. She watched as a mating pair of finches fed each other and she responded with a quiet awwww. After a few moments, she started the car to drive the final blocks to her home. There was work to do: get better, get back into the war and help end it. As the car began to move, she glanced out her window and saw a goldfinch flying parallel beside her. The finch looked back at her for a few beats as if to say best of luck to you before wheeling away to join its friends.