Come With Me and Dance (March 20, 2024)

The rain poured, and the normally glass like surface of the lake washed erratically. 

Corvus used his cigarette to lit his next and than flicked the bud out from under the shelter into a puddle. The PBY catalina rocked gentle back and forth in the rain as Corvus continued to smoke and as Rigs sat next to him staring intently at the sky. 

“So, when is she gonna let up? We were supposed to be out of this hole an 3 hours ago.”

“Corvus, I don’t know. I can’t see the future.”

“But you can read the wind?” Corvus let smoke blow out as he continued to watch the plane rock back and forth in the rain. 

Both men turned around at the sound of footsteps splashing through the rain. A man in a green rain coat was hurring towards them. Nither of the two pilots stood up. Both just continued to wait as Daviski finally reached them. He shook himself like a dog and sent water droplets everywhere. 

“Eh!” and “What’s your problem!” Both Corvus and Rigs yelled at the same time. 

“I’m sorry sir. New orders have rollled in. Command says you missed your good weather period to clear the mountains today. They want you to head south when the weather lets up.”

Rigs sighed and stood up. “Any idea when that may be?”

“Command just said it’s a big one. Could be a day, maybe more?”

Corvus threw his cigereet to the ground. “Well, I’m gonna go grab a drink.” He immeditaly began to walk in the direction of the officer’s club. Rigs watched him go and sighed. “Daviski, meet us back here when the rain lets up. I’m going into town.”

Rigs turned away and began to walk into town.

It was about a mile and half walk into the town proper. Which considering the view of the mountains and the towering pines, was not a bad walk at all. Soliders weren’t explictily allowed to go into town. But the front was over 200 miles from here, and there hadn’t been any fighting here in the last 4 months. So the rules had become a little lax. 

Rigs carefully navigate his way around some of the larger puddles. He stuck to the edge of the dirt road in order to try and avoid the mud that would just stick to his shoes. 

SLowly he made his way to the small village. As he reached the edge of the town he beathed a sigh of relief. This place, this majestic little place had not been ravaged by the war. It was as it had at least in Rigs mind, the same as it had been two hundered years ago. 

The locals barly paid him a glance as he walked down the streets. They were used to the forigen men in their village now. They had lived under the harsh conditions of war just like the rest of the world had. 

The rain wasn’t pouring down here, by it was coming down in gray sheets that blotted out the sky. Rigs didn’t look up, the rain hitting him was enough of the proog that he needed.

A cafe sat on the far side of the town, it was beatiful little spot that was nestled still in the main street, but out the back was also a clear blue river that cut its way across the town. 

Rigs reached the front door and took off his hat as he stepped inside, it was a very grand and beatiful building for the number of people that were in it. The ceiling was tall, the grand stair case and the desk sat empty. Rigs didn’t notice either of these things as he quickly made his way across the main entence. 

Near the back he passed the resturant counter and stepped back out into the covered porch. It was nearly empty, two other soliders sat near the entence who rigs nodded at as he passed them. Than there were a handful of locals.

Rigs made his way to the back of the seating area and sat down right next to wear the rain dripped off of the covering. The sound of the rain and the running of the river mixed together as he sat there and listened. Waiting. 

Soon a simple cup of hot coffee sat in front of him as he watched the clouds slowly rolling by overhead. Rigs concetration on the clouds was broken as 

A woman sat down at the table across from him. She was holding a book. Rigs couldn’t read much of the local languafe, but he knew enough to know that the cover of the book read “Wind and rain” the rest he could not make out. 

Something strange possosed him that moment.  

Rigs stood up and walked across thew nearly empty resturant. 

“Is anyone sitting here?”

She shook her head. And he took a seat.

“Your book, is it about the weather?” He immeditatly realized how akward the question sounded as soon as it left his lips, as well as the fact that she might not even be able to understand a single word that he was saying. 

“It is.” She smiled. “Some emerging theories of how we can predict the weather. I was able to get it from an American.”

“Your english is very good?” Again he realized how stupid the question sounded as soon as it had left his lips. But he had no choice but to double down on his decesions. 

“I went to college at Oxford.” She smiled. 

“And your very intelligent?” He paused, realizing he had now put his foot straight into his mouth a thrid time. “I’m sorry. I do belive I have messed things up terribly.”

She gave him a dazling smile. “That can be forgiven. But I would like to know what it is that you want?”

“I’m sorry Ma, I am a pilot. I from the air base up the road. My name is Mathus Rigs. I’m orginally from Tennesse, up in the mountains, this place actually reminds me and awful lot of home. But to be honest, I sat down when I saw that you were reading a book on the weather. And so it made me think about the fact that our plane can’t take off in this. I was wondering when the rain might let up, and figured a local might know and so. . .” He trailed off, knowing that he had just said far more than he needed to. 

But she didn’t interupt him or mock him. She just waired intently for him to end. “Sadly Mr Rigs, my book cannot help you. For it is about weather pridiction, thingss that we do not have the remotest access to here. What I can tell you (It is what it is in Itilian).”

“What does that mean Madam?”

“It essentially translates to, ‘it is when it is.’ This rain will end when it does, anda not a moment sooner. There is nothing that you can do to make it pass by a moment sooner. All you can do is wait.”

Rigs looked once more towards the clouds as it continued to rain. “I don’t think I ever got your name?”

“You hadn’t bothered to ask.”

“I’m asking.”

“Lalina.”

“How did you end up at Oxford Lalina?”

The two of them sat there at it continued to rain. It seemed that you could almost see the river right next to them slowly began to swell. The sound of rushing river along with the splashing of the rain into the water. They talked so long that nither of them noticed as the sky began to grow darker with the setting of the sun. 

Not until Lalina finally stood up and turned and looked towards the exit. “Tell me Mathus, do you need to be anywhere tonight.”

Mathus gave another look towards the oncoming rain outside, showing no signs of letting up. “I don’t think I do. I am here, until I am here.” She smiled at him. He smiled back at her and stood up as well. 

“Come with me.” She grabbed her hat and her bag. 

“Okay? Where are we going?” 

“It’s the spring solstice. There’s a place where we go dancing just out of town. This is the old way. And many, miss the old ways.” The last part of what she said, she said slowly. It was the first time either of them had mentioned the war. She reached out her hand. 

Rigs hesitated for just a moment before taking her hand. 

She pulled him along with her and out of the restaurant and into the rain. She didn’t seem to care as her flowing dress and nice hat were getting soaked by the rain. Rigs had to quicken his step in order to keep pace with her as the two of them continued past the edge of town. 

As they walked along the dirt road, Lalina began to hum a tune and slowly whisper the verses to herself. Rigs did not understand a single word of the forgien song. But he began to hum along with her. 

It was old, and it was sweet, and he had the feeling he had know this tune at some point when he was a very young boy. But at some point along the way it had been lost. 

“Where are you taking me?”

“You be, where you end up.”

He laughed, which made he laugh as she all of sudden broke out into run. Catching Rigs off guard and he began to run. The two of them rang side by side along the muddy dirt road in the pouring rain as the sku continued to grow darker. 

Rigs slowed and so did Lalina as the both heard it at the same time. It was the sound of a fiddle and piano, it was the sound of peoples feet, it was the sound of people singing together a song that they all knew. 

“We’re almost there!” Lalina shouted as she once again resumed their run.

Rigs clung onto her hand as the two of them both resumed their run into the forest. 

All of sudden, they burst out into a clear. 

For a moment the sights and smells overwhelmeed Rigs as he stood their dumb struck.

3 musicans sat around a piano that was sitting in the entrence of a barn, one held a fiddle and the other a guitar as they all sung in harmony, the beat was wild and sound as though it should have been off key. But it wasn’t, it blended and weaved into itself like the waves and the wind on the ocean shore. Men and woman danced together in the center of the field, the smell of food and of boose was heavy on the air as the couples intertwined and danced around one another. 

Rigs only had a moment to take it in before Lalina had yanked at his hand and pulled him into the dance. He grabbed her other hand and the two of them danced. A dance without form, without meaning or rhyme but in tune to the beat and the words that Rigs did not fully understand. 

But it didn’t matter. 

The war didn’t matter. 

His curfew and responsibilities did not matter. 

Because in that moment, all that did matter was keeping in time with the music, and keep up with the woman that was in his arms. 

“MR RIGS!? Why are you crying!?” She had to shout in order to be heard over the music. 

“Home.”

“Home Mr. Rigs? You are home right now.” Because home was the feeling that the two of them shared together in that moment. The moment as they held each other in their arms. Home was the moment that they clung together and knew that everything would turn out alright. That was what home was. 

Because this dance, these people he did not know. They did remind him of home. Home when he would be forced to go to the church dance. The akward night of his senior prom. Just days before he would join up. A time and a place that he could never go back to. 

Because Rigs hadn’t know what he had than. But he did now. He would trade anything and everything he had just to go back to those time. But he couldn’t. No one ever could.

But Rigs did have right now. He had right now as he held Lalina tight as the two of them danced. Rigs couldn’t go back in time. And in this moment, with Lilina and him together. He would never have even dreamed of wanting to go back. Because the moment that he had now, was all he had ever wanted. 

Lalina pulled Rigs off of the dance floor and shouted into his ear. “Come, let us get something two drink!” The two of them quickly made their way off of the dance floor and were almost immediately handed a glass of something. 

Rigs did not care as he sipped from it. It was sweet and tangy, and tasted of the earth. But that was okay. Because right now the world is okay. They walked slowly around the dance floor. Drawing further away from the music. 

“Are you enjoying yourself Mathus?”

Mathus beamed, “like I never have before.”

Lalina smiled back in response, than you are truly ready for the next song. Be quick and follow my lead. The music changed, the fiddle strung out it’s chords, the piano notes hung heavy in the air as they started a step that everyone beat in time to. 

Rigs carefully moved one foot in, and two the side, and swung his hand forward and took a step back in order to match the almost erratic style of dancing that swayed around the space like a gale of churning wind. 

But the two of them danced. 

Rigs didn’t know the meldoy. 

He didn’t need to.

It was enough to be here dancing with this women right here, in this moment. Every bit of his focus was pointed directly at the women in his arms. Their feet splashed through the puddles as the run and the music swirrled around them. 

The two of them pressed closed as the music continued. Just as it felt like Rigs feet were going to give way underneath him, Lalina grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the crowd. 

They walked out past the barn and through the rain the sprikled down around them. 

“Thank you.” Rigs squeezed Lalinas hand, and she turned and smiled at him without saying a word. Her dress swaying as they walked through the tall grass. 

The sound of the river was growing louder as they got closer to it. They reached a sandy bank off, Lalina slipped off her shoes and stepped into the sand. Rigs let go of her hand and took off his boots. 

His feet touched to the cool damp sand. Streams of water cut their way through the sand and washed their way into the river. The cool water ran over Rigs bare toes. Lalina grabbed him by the waste and Rigs shivered as the two of them pressed close and the rain water continued to drop down his back. 

“This is where I learned to dance.” She whispered. Just barely loud enough to be heard. 

They were here alone. 

The music off the celbration just far enough away on the wind that he could just about hear the lyrics even though he couldn’t understand them. 

But that didn’t matter. 

The two of them began to slowly dance. Their feet dragging through the sand. The cold earth raditing its way upwards. The music that off the sand as they moved it. The rushing whistle of the river as it carried on it’s way. The strings of the wind as it played its way through the trees. 

And that off the dripping rain into the ground. 

The melody of a moment and of the earth. Rigs had never heard something more beatiful. 

Lalina leaned in and the two of them kissed. Rigs held her as the two of them embraced.  Rig’s opened his eyes as sunlight struck his face. He broke the kiss and stepped back. “I’m sorry.”

The drum beat had vanished. 

“What?” She looked heart broken. 

And it broke Rig’s heart. The whistle of the river had turned ominous. A warning of what could never be. He looked up at the scattering clouds, and cursed the coming of the sun. “I need to go. I need to go.”

“Please don’t go. Please don’t go.”

“I need to go.” Rigs began to back up. It was time to go. He needed to go. He began to back up. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just stay.”

“I can’t. I can’t.”

He turned his back, he picked up his boots and without the time to put them back on, he didn’t look back at her as he began to run. He couldn’t be late. Corvus would be ferious, and he wouldn’t be above reporting him. 

The base gates still sat open as Rigs ran through them. He could see Corvus strolling ahead of him. They reached the plane dock at the same time. 

Corvus looked him up and down. “Your wet.” He walked past him and was about to got on board the plane when he paused. “And why are your feet bare and covered in mud? Its disquesting.” Than Corvus entered the plane. Rigs yanked on his boots and followed just behind him, still trying to catch his breath as the two of them made their way through the plane to the cock pit. 

Corvus began to do their preflight checks. Rigs hands shook as he joined. 

Without making eye contact Corvus threw his cigrett out the window and said “I just got orders we are being transfered out of this hole. We’re headed to the coast now.”


“So we’re not coming back?”

“No.”

Rigs sat back in the seat, and stared at the clearing sky, as the the props of the plane rumbled into life.