The Soldier and the Saint Confession of an old musician by Vladislav Celik

A soldier is pronounced dead by a road-side bomb, but when his remains arrive to the military hospital, his vital signs show activity. After extensive resuscitation and rehabilitation, he returns to his home in California, to recuperate from the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Going back in time to his enlistment in the military, he remembers walking into a pawn shop and buying a broken porcelain figurine of the ancient Roman Goddess Golondrina, who, according to the legend, is still revered by the Portuguese on the Azorean islands and is known as Santa Golondrina. Soldier glues the figurine’s broken wings and keeps her as his own Patron Saint. After the road-side bomb accident earns him the trip home, he joins the local Portuguese holy procession, in which the Azoreans walk a human-sized statuette of Santa Golondrina. When the Saint is displayed in the church, heavily medicated soldier starts a conversation with her and admits that he would like to have a wife who looks like the Saint. Touched by his sincere confession, the Saint promises to turn herself into a woman in order to become his wife. However, when the soldier attempts to sneak her out of the church, he gets arrested for stealing church property. He is in such a big trouble that only a Saint can bail him out and that is where the miracle begins…