Page 11 of Song of Memories

Persephone shook her head, “You know everyone has the choice to drink from Lethe, Pan. If you wanted to do it, too…”

“I could never forget her,” Pan snapped, turning to Persephone with a sudden righteous anger flooding his veins. “I would never choose to forget her.”

“Okay.” Persephone held up a gentle, placating hand. “That is your decision. Eurydice wanted to forget, and you need to respect that.”

“She doesn’t remember!” Pan cried out again, resting his head on his knees. Another wave of muted applause rang out through the skies, and Pan moaned pitifully, knowing the lovers had reunited. “Eurydice doesn’t remember that Orpheus betrayed her.”

6

Eurydice thought she might pass out. All of the blood rushed out of her head and left her feeling quite faint as she tried to comprehend Orpheus standing in front of her.

Everything about him was exactly the same as she remembered him, but the details were fuzzy. It was as though she was seeing him through a dream. It was like looking at a memory come to life, some sort of carbon copy of an original that was blurred around the edges. He was standing before her in the exact same outfit she remembered him wearing on the day of their wedding. His golden hair was sticking up in all directions—as though he’d been running his hands nervously through it all day—and his tunic was rich and finely embroidered. Even his fingers were adorned with rings, shining with jewels, although that was something she didn’t remember from the last time she’d seen him.

It must be more evidence of how rich a life he led in the mortal world, Eurydice thought to herself, completely hung up on a minuscule detail in the face of such an overwhelming sensation to have Orpheus standing in front of her.

Eurydice’s heart was racing, and she suddenly sucked in a breath, the realization dawning on her that she hadn’t been breathing.

“Eurydice?” Orpheus’s soft voice cut through the roar of her own blood pounding in her ears. “Are you okay?”

“What?” Eurydice choked out, her hands slick with sweat as she started rubbing them together. She was still trying to commit every minuscule inch of Orpheus to memory, studying him as though it was the last time she would ever see him instead of a reunion. She swayed on her feet as her heart slowly returned to a normal rhythm in her chest.

“Eurydice!” Orpheus sucked in a sharp, nervous breath, his hands going out to steady Eurydice.

His grip on her shoulders pulled Eurydice out of her overwhelming panic, the subtle heat of his hands awakening a thousand different recollections of nights past. The evenings and afternoons they’d spent exploring one another, desperate to soak up every minute they’d had together as if it was their last before they’d known how true that was.

Eurydice blinked several times, finally clearing some of the fog from her head, and her face broke out into a wide smile.

There he was, as sun-kissed as ever and smiling at her… Orpheus.

“Orpheus!” Eurydice half-shouted, grinning like a child with sweets as she threw her arms around his neck and launched herself at him. Orpheus didn’t pause for even a moment, joining her in raucous laughter as he started swinging her around. For a few moments, the air was thick with the sounds of laughter and uncapped joy, the melody of a reunion for the ages drifting through the skies of the Underworld.

From somewhere off in the distance, cheers started to erupt from the crowds that Hades had dispersed—who clearly stayed as close as they could to the action. A chorus of well-wishes started echoing out from the skies around them, cheering the lovers on.

“Eurydice!” Orpheus repeated her name again, spinning her in continuous circles, until after a few minutes, her feet finally touched the ground again.

Orpheus pulled back from her, cupping her face with his hands, his entire countenance as bright as the sun as he stared down at her face. They were both breathing heavily, trying to catch their racing, runaway pulses. Eurydice couldn’t find a single reason why she had been so worried before.

This is Orpheus… My Orpheus, she reminded herself. How I have missed my love!

“I’m… I’m so happy to see you,” Orpheus started, still shaking his head as if in mild disbelief. “I have to admit, I was nervous. I didn’t even know if you’d be willing to see me.”

Eurydice froze, the sudden joy and exhilaration she had been feeling moments before beginning to ebb away. That unfamiliar, cold, distant sensation started creeping up through her fingers and toes again.

What does that mean? Her thoughts started to run away from her as she desperately tried to make sense of the confusing barrage of feelings and sensations, unable to comprehend what her own heart was telling her.

Orpheus seemed to sense the confusion on her face, and his brow furrowed. He started to look Eurydice up and down as if he couldn’t tell who she was. Eurydice began to panic.

“What do you mean?” Eurydice choked out, a cold sheen of sweat breaking out on her forehead. “I… I was excited to see you. I am excited to see you. You… You’re my husband.” Eurydice started to repeat the same words to herself over and over, the exact same incantation that she had been trying to convince herself of on her way to reunite with Orpheus.

Orpheus quickly buried his surprised expression and started nodding, rapidly confirming what Eurydice was saying. “Yes, of course, my love.” His cocksure grin was back. “I’m excited to see you too. It’s all that I’ve dreamed of for forty years.”

“What did you mean by that then? What did you mean when you said you weren’t sure if I would want to see you? Why do people keep asking me that?” Eurydice was unable to keep her voice from sounding shrill. There it was again—the sensation that there was something innately wrong about this reunion, like she was trying on a pair of shoes that were the wrong size. Orpheus only forced his smile even wider and began speaking confidently, burying away his own surprise from a few moments before.

“Don’t get worked up,” Orpheus chided her softly, running his hands up and down her arms. “It’s just been such a long time, Eurydice, that’s all. People fall out of love all the time, especially mortals, you know. I didn’t know if you’d wait for me after all this time. Time is the most fickle of masters. I’m positive that is what everyone else meant if they asked you about it too. We all weren’t sure if you would still be excited to see me after forty years in the Underworld. I’ve been told being dead does funny things to people.”

Some of the panic in Eurydice’s chest receded, and she nodded her head slowly. Orpheus pulled her against his chest in a hug and held her there, his arms wrapped tightly around her body.

Eurydice took several deep breaths, allowing herself to be comforted by the scent of Orpheus and his strong presence. She let her thoughts drift to the warm afternoons they’d spent together in sunny meadows, coaxing her heart rate back down as Orpheus gently rocked her back and forth.

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