Europe After the Rain
Series of excerpts from the Diary of Max Ernest, a fox who took to living in a shelter to escape the fires of a war which ravaged his homeland:
"I have not left this shelter for years- it is my last refuge in this time of great and tremendous upheaval. There are tunnels which lead into the cities so that i may purchase food, most likely from some camp commissary or occupied village. The war is intense and I have lost so many of my friends- I have not received a single update on troop movements or who has won what battle or what strategy either side is thinking. The nightmares of war were so awful that I became lulled to sleep by the endless percussion of artillery fire and machine guns, in that clearing a mile from this forest hideout, amazed that anyone could fall asleep in the midst of such fighting. Death and suffering and famine are mere miles away from my home and yet for me, all is well and the world inside this metal dome has peace- at least up until the past few weeks. Now the world around me has become quiet, filled with a defeaning silence and I must investigate. But I am afraid..."
"There is nothing to do here, except read all those books that I always had too many obligations to read during peacetime and design my artworks. I often think that a part of me died on the day the Great War was declared and I ran into hiding into this forgotten shelter in the woods. I couldn't stop hearing the hellish tattoo of bullets and cannons and the deaths of young men until a week ago. Has there been a ceasefire declared that would end this madness and send the world back to the way it should be? I want to leave but once I leave the safety of this comfortable dome I know that they will come to draft me in their fighting, punish me as a deserter, or that I will be killed in this madness. And it is for this reason that I can eat the food I have stockpiled content in knowing that the demons of war cannot enter this sacred space. This is because I fled like a coward from the coming doom..."
"The refrigerator stopped working a week ago and all the perishable food spoiled and it was a tax on my vulpine digestive system to eat such things. I can't see what has happened on the fields of battle near my home but I know such awful things surround me and that there is no actual escape. I have reached the conclusion that I cannot stay here forever. I brought what I could from my home when I heard the war was starting, knowing full well that this indestructible dome would never be opened by any soldier and anyone would assume that it was an abandoned grain silo. And yet the war has come within a few miles and only by going through the underground tunnel have I been able to buy more food, water, and time as I wait out the end of this war. I no longer know how much time has passed since I began my life as a hermit for this stupid war but considering my lack of supplies, I cannot stay shelled up in here."
"'My name is Max Ernest and I have never been so alone in all my years.' Those were the words I spoke out loud- I hadn't even realized since this hermitage started how many years I have gone without saying a single word out loud. Other than the sales associate at the store, I have had no contact with the outside world and she is only there to calculate the cost of what I am paying for. We don't speak of anything else. Having never heard my voice in such a long time, it feels reassuring to know that I have not lost the ability to speak. And now I lay me down in Dreamland- I know perfect that's not for real."
"How could they have known my hiding spot? Every nightmare that has come to me has been about the soldiers finding me and abducting me against my will to go fight in this war in much the same way that they took the other young men. In my nightmare, they had climbed through an opening in the metal and I ran far away in the dream. And when I woke up I found myself clad in nothing but my sleeping gown and ready to unlock that door to leave this place which has been my home for the past- who knows how long it's been. In my sleepwalking, I nearly gave in and allowed the war outside to claim me. Even when I sleep and attempt to break away from this insanity, it keeps in its maddening grip. My very dreams have become nightmares of the most awful kind."
"I heard the cannons firing again today and I am certain that whatever ceasefire occurred is now truly dead and gone. I want no part of this war and I've come to hate this prison of what-ifs and almost. This entire war has given me too much of them for one lifetime."
"I burnt the food again- one of these days, I'll manage to start a fire and won't have time to escape and I'll have to choose between burning to death in this silo or being claimed by the equally devastating fires of war. I no longer have the sanity to tell what exactly is going on or why the war has lasted so long. I just hope that the cannon outside, wherever it is and whoever owns it does not fire again. I cannot help but wonder who this was for and why it was fired as the constant gunning of war has come to a standstill. Perhaps it was to destroy this silo. My food is exhausted and I have no money to buy any more. I have few options remaining. I could either stay here and die of starvation or I can surrender to my insanity and leave against my will as if carried by some demonic force. Or- I can leave of my own freewill!"
With a twist of the wheel and the disbarring of several locks, the fox opened the door and saw sunlight for the first time in untold years. Max Ernest continued walking past the labyrinth of trees and narrow walkways to the mouth of the forest where he saw the petard of a cannon and a wolf soldier approaching. But there was no war to speak of.
"Sir what was the cannon I heard?"
"It was a salvo of celebration my good man for the end of this war. Our side has won but more importantly people like me survived and we can go home to our families."
"And the occasional gunfire?"
" A twenty-one gun salute for our fighting men who lost their lives. An armistice was declared a month ago- haven't you heard?"
And so Max Ernst walked out of his sanctuary into a Europe of peace, a world where everyone was blessed just to be alive. He stepped out to Europe after the rain.