Chapter Four
I reveled in my newfound strength and endurance, and I truly needed it. This barren wasteland seemed like it would stretch on forever. One miserable hill after another, each hill followed by another miserable valley, and every square inch of it uninhabitable. Not even a vulture would bother to fly over this land. Home had not been perfect, but it was a paradise compared to what I now walked through day after day.
I had come to hate this wasteland in a way I would never have dreamed possible before I entered it. I hated it like it was a living, breathing organism. I hated it as if it was an enemy, alive and seeking to kill me.
I thought about my homeland frequently as I walked. I thought about the abundant fruit trees filled with mouth-watering oranges, peaches and figs; the groves of olive, pecan and cashew trees; the small ponds and streams; the grassy meadows and woodland forests. And of course I thought about the fields of vegetables, fruits and grains that I had grown.
I had never realized how tied I was to the place of my birth. I knew how much I loved to farm; to go into my fields and plant and cultivate my crops, but before I was forced to leave I never thought about how much our land really meant to me.
In hindsight I realized I had always considered the parts of our land outside my fields as being more connected to my parents and brother. I never gave what I considered to be their land much thought beyond what I got out of it to help sustain or cloth me.
My growing anger and frustration with my family had blinded me to my feelings for the land of my birth, and all the beauty and bounty that surrounded my home. Now that I knew what I had lost I missed the land even more than I missed my family.
I tore my thoughts away from my past and once again focused on what was in front of me. The rolling hills I had traveled through the last few days were just as tedious as the flatter lands to the west. There was still no vegetation and no change in the overall feel and nature of the landscape. I had not seen one animal since I started walking forty five days ago.
What now gave me hope were the shades of green I could see coloring the tall hills ahead of me, still far off in the distance. There was life there, food and water. I no longer had any doubt that I would be able to reach those far hills.
Ahead lay the end of my journey across the wasteland and the beginning of my new life.