In the middle of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict an abandoned wall separates Ukraine and Russia. Graffiti spreads across the barrier from a time before the war. It was a time when peace could be found in the most unlikely of places. It was a time when Marc, a Russian soldier, and Alex, a Ukrainian women, found love in a forgotten pub in Moscow— dawning an era of hope amid strife. They sought out this peace as Russia attacked Ukraine. Marc found the wall, away from the main warfront, a place where they could be together.
One evening, they clench hands through a large hole in the barrier, desperately reaching for the fragile life they had created for each other. Nights shoveling graves for her friends and family have worn down Alex’s hands. They bask in the tough edges of Marc’s palms that are frayed from carrying weaponry. Missiles make landfall in the distance; hazy plumes of eruptions blanket the rim of the clouds. Drones whir high above with the eyes of hawks. Russian battalions pass through the Ukrainian grasslands and tanks roar throughout the darkening land.
A full moon flowers into its corner in the sky, omitting fragments of milky radiance on to the broken land. In the bright moonlight they speak softly. Marc must remain in the army until the fighting ends; Alex is taking care of her siblings and sick mother. They kiss each other through the wall’s opening, feeling the hope that they have always felt. Marc promises to her he will not kill any Ukrainians.
He returns to his post and she returns to a small town a few miles from Kharkiv. She silently pours a cup of borscht from her cabinet, slurping up the beat soup quickly. Her mother and brothers are asleep in the room upstairs. She rinses the dirt off of her body from the trek to the wall and turns on the television, seeing the destruction of her home as massacres unfurl throughout the country. The flashes of carrying her cousin’s dead body to an open grave stay with her. She falls asleep on the couch with the television on.
Early the next morning, Alex is awoken by her mother, Roda. She gently touches Alex’s arm and guides her forward into the rays of the golden sunrise transecting the windows of the small house. Her mother softly asks how Marc is doing. Alex says that he is doing well. Her mother asks her if she truly loves him, knowing the risk Alex is taking by going to the wall during wartime. Alex responds that she does. Her mother’s voice suddenly booms, saying that true love must prevail. She sits down next to her daughter on the couch and coughs deeply, the tuberculosis wearing her down. The doctor says that it is killing her, but she choses to avoid medication, believing it will affect her heart.
Suddenly, they hear the rumbling of a military vehicle approaching their home. They believe it is a patrol doing a routine pass throughout the region around the border. The vehicle stops in front of the house. Alex and Roda stare at each other in apprehension. Three soldiers approach the front door. They are stoic, knowing what must be done to border towns. One of them is Marc.
Her mother opens the knotty door, Alex and Marc’s eyes link over her shoulder. His skin sallows and the rims around his eyes furrow. He takes a few steps back. From her place on the couch she closes her piercing blue eyes and presses a pillow into her cheeks
One of the soldiers tells them they must leave their land. Roda says that they will not. The soldier points the gun at the sky and pulls the trigger. Roda is not intimidated, holding her ground. He points the gun at her, his barren hands contorted around its trigger, and shoots her leg. In shock, Alex leaps up and runs to her mother. As the soldier aims towards her Marc raises his gun and shoots him in the face. Blood rustles down into the small house, pooling on the doorstep. He wrestles the other soldier on to the ground, shoving a knife into his heart. The soldier dies slowly. Alex and Marc tend to Roda. They press cloth against her wound and bandage it up. Alex’s little brothers step furtively towards the scene. They have grown old amid the violence.
The abandoned wall continues to sit at the juncture between hope and fear. Others venture to the wall to see loved ones, hoping that the war will end. It continues to be a place where change presides; the cracked face giving rise to the monolithic love of Marc and Alex. Marc is imprisoned briefly for his actions, the higher up unaware of the extent of his attack.
He meets Alex at the wall five years later. Their hands interlace like they always have.