Halves

VII. Persephone

When Eos takes flight across the heavens, trailing the dawn from her sparkling wings, I am already awake. The whispering stalks of the grain fields call out to me as the winds rush through them. They are at their peak, restless in their fullness, practically begging to be either cut and gathered or else shaken until their seeds are scattered to the earth. I am on edge from all the extra noise, my muscles as twitchy as a deer's. 

I feel I need to actually DO something today, or I shall lose my mind.

"You are up early today, my Kore." Mother's voice, still low and sleepy, wraps around me; her strong hands rest firmly on my shoulders, keeping me from wandering any further into the fields.

"I could not sleep."

"Why? Is something wrong?" Her tone sharpens with concern as her fingers tighten their protective grip.

"Nothing is wrong, I just...." Pausing, I collect myself for an attempt to explain and make a request that I already know will be denied. "Can I come with you today?"

"To help with the harvest? My Dearest, you would find it terribly dull! To stand in the hot sun all day long and gather the grain? It is hard toil, my Love, not something 'fun' to make play of. Go with the nymphs, find your favorite flowers and frolic in the streams. You will enjoy that much more, I promise you."

I shrug away from her grasp and turn to face her. "Mother, that is exactly what I have been doing ever since the solstice! I do not know if I can stand one more day of exactly the same! And besides...," I reach down to stroke a bobbing stalk beside me, "...I feel how restless everything is for the harvest. Even you cannot reach everything in a day. Maybe I could help."

She stares down at me with an intensity that I want to shrink from. "What do you mean, when you say you 'feel' the restlessness of the grain?"

"Just that it is fully grown, and itching to...to...I do not even know how to explain it. Forget I said anything." Apparently, growing things do not call out to her in the same way. She would not understand what I am experiencing, I see that now. I had thought, as my powers began to grow more complex, that I was becoming more like her as I matured. 

But maybe I am becoming LESS like her. The thought is both deliciously tempting and breathtakingly horrifying. 

What am I, then, if not a Lady of the Harvest like her?

Who is Persephone? 

What is her purpose?

Mother seems torn between questioning me further and starting early on managing the harvest. After a brief internal struggle, the call of her ancient responsibilities triumphs over the more delicate and recent duties of parenthood.

"I must go, Kore. Promise me you will behave? Stay with the nymphs, grow some more flowers. I will see you once the moon rises. We can talk more then."

"Very well." I stand stiffly as she kisses my forehead. "I love you, Mother." There is a bit of a childish plea in my voice, an attempt to get her to stay and help me figure out everything that is happening inside of me, even though I know she cannot.

"And I you, my Sweet. Be good, and take care of yourself." Then she is gone, her yellow robes melting into the sea of waving grain, and I am left alone. 

I doubt she even noticed my longing for her to stay.

The nymphs soon sweep me off to a sunlit meadow, where we spend the entirety of the morning playing games and weaving flower garlands. Most times, I can almost forget my woes when caught up in their infectious laughter, but today, the heaviness in my chest will not go away. It drags at me persistently, like the heaviness in the air before a storm, but the clouds are white and scattered far apart. There will be no storm to relieve the pressure today.