Sofiya, Bulgaria
15:30pm
Only two people noticed the couple walk into the small roadside café. A sallow-skinned old woman momentarily glanced up from her newspaper as they sat down.
Antigone couldn't help but feel unnerved when she noticed a young man staring at her through great grey plumes of cigarette smoke.
She quickly looked away, and feigned a strong interest in the folded paper menu on the table.
Osiris spotted her darting eyes, and her reached across the table & squeezed her hand gently.
"Why are you looking so scared? We are safe here," he said, smiling.
She looked up into his dark eyes and smiled back weakly.
"I know, I'm just a little, well, anxious, just ignore me I'm just being paranoid."
She stroked the back of his hand.
"There's no need to be anxious or paranoid Tig, I'll-"
He was cut short as a pale, almost skeletal woman approached the table, notebook in hand.
Osiris ordered himself some tea, and when he asked Antigone what she wanted, she mumbled "Orange juice please."
Osiris felt hungry, so he also ordered some beef kavarma, and a Shopska salad. He was glad he had been thrifty during the trip from Greece to here, it meant they could enjoy a nice meal once in a while. They had taken all the money they had when they left Athens to embark on this journey, and they were running rather short now.
As they ate, Osiris pointed out how peaceful Sofiya seemed to be, almost as though the events over the last 100 years had not done it any great damage. The people seemed to live a very pastoral existence, but seemed happy.
"I wonder what Cairo will be like now," mused Antigone, twisting a strand of her long hair idly between her fingers, "Do you think it will eventually fall into the ground like everywhere else. I'm surprised it still stood through the Twilight, it seemed to be so prosperous when we were there last."
Osiris looked out of the café window, saw people getting on with their lives, going to and from work, meeting friends, partners, as though the outside world did not exist atall, except in a memory or a dream.
He couldn't bear the thought of their city in ruins. They had heard about the horrors that had befell other countries.
He looked back at his sister.
"I don't believe for one moment that the Gods would allow Cairo to fall into the dust, you know it Tig, we're made of stronger stuff."
She smiled at him, a warm, broad smile that lit up her face, and he was so happy to see her smile like that. Unfortunately, with the pressures of the long journey, and the uncertainty ahead of them, smiling came to Antigone less and less often. But he loved it when she let herself relax & be happy, even if just for a moment.
Still smiling, she said to him "Once our journey is over, I would like to go back."
Osiris looked doubtful at this. Many unhappy memories lay for him in Cairo.
"We will see."
17:00pm
Osiris leaned on the counter of the café's makeshift bar. His grasp of the local Bulgarian dialect was shaky at best, but he managed to remember enough of it to ask the manager if the airport in Sofiya was operational.
The manager, a vastly obese balding man, informed Osiris in a haughty tone that there hadn't been a working airport for over 20 years.
However, all was not lost, he also told Osiris that there were still long distance trains running, and gave him directions to the main station.
They paid for their lunch & left. As Antigone followed Osiris out of the door, she glanced back at where the staring man had been, but he was gone.
They made their way across the city to the location the café manager had given them. They entered the railway station, and Osiris headed straight for the information desk, while Antigone absent-mindedly looked at a display of postcards, all dusty & forgotten, along with most of the tourism.
It was a surprisingly big station, many people were milling around, and at the end of a long platform were several trains waiting to depart, and beyond them was a great chasmic tunnel.
Antigone wondered where the trains were going, would there be one that could take them closer to Prague?
After much gesticulating & talking in a loud voice, Osiris found out that there was a train that was bound for Denmark, but passed Prague en route. He promptly bought 2 tickets and returned to the foyer.
Antigone was waiting for him, seemingly quite disorientated by the crowds. She saw him approaching & looked at him expectantly. He smiled at her & held the tickets up. She grinned broadly & she jogged over to meet him, flinging herself into his arms and holding him tightly.
"Is it going to Prague? When does it leave? Which one is it Osi?"
He laughed, she was so cute when she got excited.
"It is going through Prague, it leaves in twenty minutes, and it's that one."
He pointed to a very long burgundy sleeper train, the curtains in the windows drawn. It was going to be a long trip, but Antigone didn't care, the Gods were on their side.
Osiris boarded first, and quickly dashed to a double seat. He hated to be cramped up on journeys. Antigone stepped onto the train & joined him, laughing as Osiris jostled their 2 hold-alls into the luggage rack.
When they sat down, side by side, Antigone yawned, and nestled her head into Osiris' broad shoulder.
She hadn't noticed a young man boarding the train, who was now sitting at the opposite end of their carriage.
Smoking, and staring.
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