The Roadhouse Report – April 2024

Prólogos
Summer, 55 BC
Ithaca

It was a beautiful morning, a sky no bluer than the sea, a soft breeze keeping the biting flies off as she laid another bunch of dark, red grapes gently in the basket at her feet. She picked one and ate it and felt the small, sweet burst of flavor fill her mouth, always with that aftertaste of tartness that gave her village’s wine its reputation.

She stood up, seeing the stooping figures of the rest of the girls filling their own baskets.  Her best friend, Sophronia, winked at her and she grinned back.

“Ranny!”

Ranny looked up to see Pipi waving from the edge of the vineyard, where the grapes grew closest to the edge of the cliff. She shook her head and bent over to pick up her basket.

“No! Leave it! Come see, Ranny! Now!”

She looked up sharply at the urgency she heard in her little sister’s voice. She left the basket, full of grapes warm from the sun, hiked up her tunic and set off up the path between the vines at a trot. She arrived at her sister’s side and followed the pointing finger with her gaze. 

Her heart gave a single bound in her breast and then seemed to stop beating altogether.

A ship with a faded sail and steadily beating oars was taking advantage of a combination of the incoming tide and an onshore breeze. Its sides were lined with men in mismatched apparel armed with swords and clubs.

Pipi looked from the ship to her older sister, her expression fearful. “Ranny?”

Ranny tore her eyes from the sea to her sister and bent over, grasping her sister’s shoulders tightly in her hands. “Run, Pipi! Run as fast as ever you can to the fields! Tell the men to come at once! Tell them—tell them pirates have come into the cove!”

She stood up and turned her sister around and gave her a shove. Pipi stumbled a few steps and turned to look up at her. “But—what about Mother? And Auntie? And Grandmother? And the babies?”

“I’ll warn them! Go!” She gave Pipi another shove, harder this time, so that she nearly fell. “RUN!”