At dawn I am climbing up the endlessly winding stair. My husband stands at the bottom, watching my progress.

Just as I reach the top and am pushing open the door, something makes me look back. A ray of light illuminates the stair and falls upon my husband’s face. I see the light catch something on his face and I realize he is crying.

But then someone is pulling open the door, pulling me outside into the light, and suddenly I am in my mother’s arms again.

“My darling, my daughter! Oh, but I have missed you…”

I hug my mother back, but inwardly I am still down there, in the underworld. Watching the tears stream down his face.

~

“Persephone, tonight we will celebrate your return. We will drink to your health, feast until we are sated. We will give our thanks to your father Zeus that he has seen fit to allow you to stay here in the overworld half of the year. And the fertility rites will commence anew.”

I reach for my mother’s hands.

“I am happy to be here again,” I say simply.