One War Ends

She is crying over a robot. 

The memories are flooding her mind today. 

It's the muscle memory that floods her mind. 

The war is over.

The war is over.

The war is over. 

She chants in her mind at her table. 

It's normal now.

It's normal now.

It's normal now.

I. Am. Normal. Now. 

Now. Now. Now.  

She's a teacher again. It's normal again. It's Sunday, and she has her table at the flea market again. It's all normal again. 

Is... 

That Joe? 

So you have to understand flashbacks: it's not like you are suddenly there, exactly. You must understand it's a scent or a taste or a sound or a thing that you didn't know you knew. 

She's not herself anymore. 

And she's Capt. Russo, Commander, 1st Platoon, 2nd Company, 4th Brigade, First Maryland Regiment, First Combined Human Machine Brigade. 

The saliva pours into her mouth as the memories pour into her brain. 

Not true, can't be true. 

Please don't be true. 

Up and over she goes. And she finds 089121. His name, which he chose, is Joe. His body is destroyed. His core power cell is damaged and it's leaking the corrosive acid of his power cell. 

Captain Russo doesn't know this. She doesn't know he's dying, so she puts the rifle butt to her shoulder and scans the area. 

"How are you, Soldier?" she asks. 

"Time is running out, captain..." 

Captain Russo stops scanning. Did this soldier just use her rank?! The nerve...

"Captain... I am dying. You cannot stop my dying. Captain Russo. My systems have tried to keep me alive, and they are routing power elsewhere, so now I cannot see. Your face. You made us... We combat machines. You. Made us. Human. We were just. Things. Before you." 

Russo pauses, "You can be repaired, Soldier, don't worry." 

"Nega. Tive. Ma'am. I. Am. Dying. It is so important. You said. Death. Is. A part. Of life. I am. Human now." 

Russo grabs him by the collar and says, "STAY WITH ME!" Joe shudders and maybe laughs? He is a good soldier, and in his last word, he says, "I was born here, ma'am. Take this planet back. please." 

"Goddamn right I will." 

If you asked her about what happened after that, she couldn't tell you. 

Punching through the lines, she became a story of terror for the opposing forces' children.

She was thinking about the succulents she used to sell at the flea market under the bridge just near where it took place. 

She liked it there. The people were kind. The food was good. Light years away and lifetimes ago. 

The blood and terror she caused in Baltimore was part of a treaty that got them off this planet, never to return. 

It was called the Treaty of Human Women because all over the planet, women fought hard. 

Many years later, after the war was over, Russo still wore a bracelet made of Joe's exterior plates. 

And every day she fights to accept that the war is over. 

Today she saw him. 

At her table. 

"Captain Russo. It's me. Joe. They could fix me." 

And the snap back to the world was what she needed, to stop being Captain Russo and just a person again.

From someone she thought was dead.