By Alex Braguine
We'll Meet Again
How often have you separated from someone, knowing, hoping, thinking we'll meet again, knowing damn well that it is finished? Knowing damn well the sunny day ahead will be provided by someone you don't yet know?
Shortly after dark, a Turkish patrol stomps their way down the cobbled street. It is more a mini parade designed to show Turkish residents of Kerenia they don't need to fear the Greeks.
Stokes and I stand aside and let the soldiers pass. A sergeant salutes us smartly. We're local heroes who keep the Turkish side of the island connected to the rest of the world.
Stokes is a rare bird. He is a Cockney and a former RAF officer. Short, stocky with a ironic sense of humor, he is my favorite flight engineer. I don't mind if he takes a healthy swig from a Milk of Magnesia bottle before every takeoff and on approach to landing.
Promising Stokes an excellent snake and kidney pie
I have invited him to dinner and darts at the Harbour Club. Owned by a British woman, this is one of the few commercial institutions left operating without change of ownership after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus.
As the stomping of Turkish boots recedes on the ancient circular quay of the harbor, we climb a steep cobblestoned street.
From the street we descend a set of stairs and go through a narrow door to enter a different world. But an English pub fits well with the town built by Phoenicians and later by expanded by crusaders.
As the owner of the Harbour Club comes to greet us, Stokes opens his arms and begins to sing, "We'll meet again . . .
The lady responds in powerful contralto, "don't know where, don't know when . . .
As they complete the song in a duet, Stokes says, "Remember me?"
"And the roses. Oh, David. What happened to you?"
They embrace.
I shuffle off to the bar and let the former music hall singer and the dapper WWII officer catch up with each other. From the balcony I look at the fortress protecting the old harbor. Some day I will also arrive at an island and will meet you there.
