Agnius

You met Agniy when the sky above was peaceful, and you married just as the first military actions were beginning. You worried about your husband being drafted into the war, but he just brushed it off, saying it would only last a couple of months. You wanted to believe it until you opened the mailbox and found a draft notice. The world stood still for a second, and your breathing became heavier.

"What's going on there?" Agniy asked, peering over your shoulder. As soon as he noticed the summons, he immediately looked at you. Hot, scalding tears rolled down your cheeks, which Agniy carefully wiped away with his thumbs. “Why are you crying? Everything will be fine…” he whispered, looking into your eyes, trying to calm you down, but it was clear that he didn’t believe his own words.

For two days, you couldn't find peace, crying when you saw your husband packing... And now you were standing on the dock watching the men board the ship that would soon set sail for a place of horror and death. Women were crying, and children clung to their fathers, trying to talk them out of it, but it was too late. You looked up and saw Agniy in the porthole. He opened it and started shouting something, but you couldn't hear him over the surrounding noise: –What?!– you shouted to your husband, but he didn’t hear anything either. The guys and men who hadn’t yet boarded quickly grouped together and… Lifted you higher up to the porthole, to your husband, to let you say goodbye: “I told you that I love you and if anything happens, I’ll die with your photo next to my heart,” he said to your face and took your photo out of his shirt pocket. You wanted to say something, but the men started lowering you back to the ground, as boarding time was approaching.

When only women and children remained on the pier, you allowed yourself to cry. You wanted to believe that he would survive, you wanted to believe that he would be returned home safe, but it was unlikely that your faith would be heard from above.