A Memory of Wind

By rachel swirsky

illustration by sam weber

Page 17 of 17

* * *

I forgot you.

They washed and perfumed me and decked me with the things that smell sweet. You came before me.

“My sweet Iphigenia,” you said. “If there was anything I could do to stop it, I would, but I can’t. Don’t you see?”

You brushed your fingers along my cheek. I watched them, no longer certain what they were.

“Iphigenia, I have no right, but I’ve come to ask for your pardon. Can you forgive me for what I’ve done?”

I stared at you with empty eyes, my brows furrowed, my body cleansed and prepared. Who are you? asked my flesh.

* * *

They led me into Artemis’s sacred space. Wild things clustered, lush and pungent, around the courtyard. The leaves tossed as I passed them, shuddering in my wind. Sunlight glinted off of the armor of a dozen men who were gathered to see the beginning of their war. Iamas was there, too, weeping as he watched.

Calchas pushed his way toward me as if he were approaching through a gale, his garment billowing around him. I recognized the red ribbons on his headband, his indigo eyes, his taut and joyless smile.

“You would have been beautiful one day, too,” she said.

Not as beautiful as you.

“No one is as beautiful as I.”

His breath stank with rotting fish, unless that was other men, another time. He held a jeweled twig in his hand—but I knew it would be your hand that killed me. Calchas was only an instrument, like Helen, like the twig.

He lifted the jeweled twig to catch the sun. I didn’t move. He drew it across my throat.

* * *

My body forgot to be a body. I disappeared.

* * *

Artemis held me like a child holds a dandelion. With a single breath, she blew the wind in my body out of my girl’s shape.

I died.

* * *

Feel me now. I tumble through your camp, upturning tents as a child knocks over his toys. Beneath me, the sea rumbles. Enormous waves whip across the water, powerful enough to drown you all.

“Too strong!” shouts Menelaus.

Achilles claps him on the back. “It’ll be a son of a bitch, but it’ll get us there faster!”

Mother lies by the remnants of the tent and refuses to move. Iamas tugs on her garment, trying to stir her. She cries and cries, and I taste her tears. They become salt on my wind.

Orestes wails for mother’s attention. He puts his mouth to her breasts, but she cannot give him the comfort of suckling. I ruffle his hair and blow a chill embrace around him. His eyes grow big and frightened. I love him, but I can only hug him harder, for I am a wind.

Achilles stands at the prow of one of the ships, boasting of what he’ll do to the citizens of Troy. Menelaus jabs his sword into my breeze and laughs. “I’ll ram Paris like he’s done to Helen,” he brags. Odysseus laughs.

I see you now, my father, standing away from the others, your face turned toward Troy. I blow and scream and whisper.

You smile at first, and turn to Calchas. “It’s my daughter!”

The priest looks up from cleaning his bloody dagger. “What did you say?”

I whip cold fury between your ears. Your face goes pale, and you clap your hands to the sides of your head, but my voice is the sound of the wind. It is undeniable.

Do you still want forgiveness, father?

“Set sail!” you shout. “It’s time to get out of this harbor!”

I am vast and undeniable. I will crush you all with my strength and whirl your boats to the bottom of the sea. I’ll spin your corpses through the air and dash them against the cliffs.

But no, I am helpless again, always and ever a hostage to someone else’s desires. With ease, Artemis imposes her will on my wild fury. I feel the tension of her hands drawing me back like a bowstring. With one strong, smooth motion, she aims me at your fleet. Fiercely, implacably, I blow you to Troy.

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25 comments

1. Irene
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 03, 2009 08:35am EST

This is _such_ a haunting and beautiful story. I'm looking forward to reading it many more times.

2. tapsi
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 03, 2009 10:01am EST

Truly beautiful.

3. Rikka
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 03, 2009 12:56pm EST

lyrical and fully epic in its own right, haunting is definitely the right word to describe this...

4. spanishviolet
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 03, 2009 10:30pm EST

Unforgettable. I loved reading this.

5. welltemperedwriter
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday November 04, 2009 12:56am EST

This is amazing. I love this myth and this is an incredibly well-done interpretation of it.

6. RobMRobM
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday November 04, 2009 07:55am EST

Very well done story - and the illustation was beautiful as well.

7. slikz21
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday November 05, 2009 07:20pm EST

Thank you very much, this was a great read.

On a similar note, it would be interesting to see your takes on Andromache, Penelope, or Lavinia for example. What always strikes me when reading mythology is the brevity when characters like Iphigenia are mentioned - if they are mentioned at all.

And I'm definitely going to agree with the description of haunting: "I need you to remember me for me." Enough said.

8. gorillo
Thursday November 05, 2009 07:22pm EST

that was incredible.

9. Planeswalker
Friday November 06, 2009 03:55am EST

That story was beautiful. Thank you. As is the lady in the illustration.

10. Leotrak
VIEW ALL BY · Friday November 06, 2009 05:09am EST

Wow... Just... Wow. Very impressive read.

11. Asakiyume
VIEW ALL BY · Friday November 06, 2009 08:05am EST

This was a **beautiful** story. I loved the way you wove the storytelling. Loved the way things slipped away from Iphigenia. Loved her words right at the end, also her words to Orestes.

All the characters--Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Helen--wonderfully rich.

12. Chris Furst
Friday November 06, 2009 11:56am EST

Beautiful story!

13. Gidget
Friday November 06, 2009 01:20pm EST

slikz21, you should read Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, but yes, this story is indeed haunting and well-written.

14. Kdah
Friday November 06, 2009 07:11pm EST

Haunting and well written it may be, but it's not science fiction or fantasy. Why is it here?

15. HarlequinZane
Friday November 06, 2009 10:00pm EST

Kdah - I'd venture that it falls under fantasy, what with sentient wind and all. It's a mythic re-write, which is a genre of fantasy.

The story is beautiful, haunting and rich. It's a real gift. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

16. ladakhdress
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday November 07, 2009 03:12am EST

Thank you so much for such a great story. It really took my boredom away.

17. Samantha R.
Tuesday November 10, 2009 06:21pm EST

That was wonderful. Thank you!

18. Threephase
Wednesday November 11, 2009 07:49pm EST

Wow. That was truly gripping. I was just reading along until the 4th part, and suddenly I just KNEW that I was going to have to finish it all, right through to part 17, immediately.

Thank you for a wonderful read!

19. bookwench
Thursday November 12, 2009 02:01am EST

This is amazing... I wanted to cry, reading it. Thank you.

20. BamaCLM
Thursday November 12, 2009 09:03pm EST

Haunting is indeed the word. This story has haunted me since I first read it.

Beautifully written.

21. Frodoo
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday November 15, 2009 07:16am EST

I always wonder how someone can write tragic stories. How someone can kill a character so beautifully created from their thoughts. but I still read them and some of them do wet my eyes. and yours is one such. really beautifully written. but I really wonder how could you kill a character as beautiful as Iphigenia. or is it that some stories and characters are meant to be so. does sadness and death only can make few stories complete? I always had this question but could never ask any. So thought of asking you because Iphigenia is really one of those characters which I liked so much that I did not like being killed in the end.

22. Rachel S.
Monday November 16, 2009 05:56pm EST

Thank you, everyone, for the kind comments.

Frodoo, you seemed to be asking me specifically, so I thought I'd respond. I apologize if it's out of place:

"but I really wonder how could you kill a character as beautiful as Iphigenia. or is it that some stories and characters are meant to be so. does sadness and death only can make few stories complete?"

Just answering for myself -- this story is based, of course, on the old stories about the Trojan war. All we really know about Iphigenia is her death. The old stories imagine her as incidental. Who she was, what she thought and said and did and felt, didn't really matter to those writers. They were interested in how her father felt about killing her.

So, to answer your question, yes I think it's true that some stories are meant to be so. In this case, Iphigenia's death is the beginning (of my impulse to write) and the end (of almost everything we know about her from traditional sources). But I wanted to imagine her as more than just her death, to create a middle for her story.

23. Robotech_Master
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 17, 2009 12:13pm EST

Is there any way I can see this in the form of a single page, so I can easily convert it to read on my iPod Touch?

24. Hapalochlaena
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 17, 2009 08:36pm EST

I'm not familiar with the iPod Touch, but you can download this story in PDF, HTML, EPUB and MOBI formats by clicking on DOWNLOAD in the sidebar.

25. Frodoo
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday November 18, 2009 11:18pm EST

It is definetly true that "A memory of wind" is more than just an end of a person. I thought it was purely fictional and expected a happy ending(its just subjective as i usually like the happy ending stories). Your style of writing really makes the reader get involved into it. I look forward to read one such happy story.