Photo: Sue Vincent
They were cold to the bone, but it did not matter once the light broke out to illuminate the edge of clouds.
“We’ll be home soon,” he breathed into her neck.
“I know,” she whispered, her teeth no longer chattering. She’d stopped feeling her toes so long ago she almost forgot she had ones.
It would have worried her, in the past. The risk of frostbite. Amputation. Loss of the ability to walk.
Not anymore.
They were beyond all these things now.
They were going home.
For the rest of time.
“How long?” she asked, fretting a bit in spite of herself. She never found transitions as easy as he had. Especially such big ones. Especially those that were irreversible.
“Soon,” his voice was barely audible but she felt it reverberate through her chest. The finality of it.
The knowledge.
His strength.
She sighed, and though he did not move she knew that he was smiling.
Another moment passed. Or perhaps it was an hour. She’d lost track of time now that it made no difference.
As her body chilled, her eyes stayed focused on the shimmering curtain of light. Its movement became the backdrop to the last views she will ever have of Earth.
Before it neared enough to carry them.
Home.
For all the eras yet to come.
For Sue Vincent’s Write Photo Challenge
Na'ama Yehuda 
I loved that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! I’m so glad you did! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poignantly beautiful, Na’ama.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sue! I don’t know how you manage that fabulous shot, but it sure led to some evocative images in my heart! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right time, right place…and always a camera in my handbag 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perfection! 🙂 Better prepared than sorry, eh? 🙂
LikeLike
Always 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is beautiful. And left open for us to fill in the background
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Crispina. I left it ambiguous on purpose. Some had asked me if this was about aliens, others if it was about death. Perhaps it is about whatever it elicits for someone who reads it … 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are the best stories 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Sometimes, eh? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Thank you!
LikeLike
Very compelling. You do know that people regressed under deep hypnosis refer to ‘heaven’ as ‘home’?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I didn’t know that, though one could argue this is less ‘regression’ than it is ‘connection’ to a higher power or some ancestral archetype or who knows … 🙂 Lovely bit of trivia! Thank you! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
According to those hypnotized, the only ‘connection’ is to themselves at ‘Home’, as they all invariably call ‘heaven’. Interesting, that. Heaven is simply not mentioned by any of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not surprised, really. Over the years I’ve known a child who was almost killed in a car accident and another who’d almost drowned – they came from different religions/cultures/upbringing and they both described, in their time, a feeling of what could be called a “home” when they were “almost dead.” I don’t think I understand exactly how it works (never been dead that I can recall … ;)) but it was reassuring to their caregivers (and to me) to hear that they hadn’t been scared. FWIW.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautifully and gloriously sad, for us yet not for them…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, indeed.
Such transitions often are …
Thank you for this response!
LikeLiked by 1 person