When There Is Nothing Left But Love

Nora turned to me and queried, “Scarlett, if we indeed get to go home this time around, what would you want to do most of all?”

What did I want? That question lingered in my mind as I continued trudging forward, deep in thought.

There wasn’t any food I was especially craving. After a moment’s pause, I concluded, “I want to see the person I miss most, give him a hug, and apologize to him face-to-face.”

Nora seemed taken by surprise. Then she curiously pressed, “Is it somebody you’re in love with?”

I gave her a faint smile but declined to reply.

Night had fallen when we finally reached saw signs of human life. The village we’d arrived at was located in quite a rural area of the mountains, and perhaps due to its inaccessibility, there didn’t seem to be many inhabitants around.

From the number of lamps we’d counted shining in the dark, there were probably thirty to forty households scattered throughout the village.

“Let’s find a place to hunker down for the night,” Nora suggested, already making her way towards the door of the nearest cottage.

“Woof! Woof!” A dog suddenly rushed out into the yard and began sounding the alert at our sudden intrusion.

We clung to each other, terrified. Fortunately, the dog was leashed to a rope. It strained against its tether, barking continuously.

The owner of the cottage had evidently heard the ruckus. Out stepped a middle-aged man with tan, weathered skin.

After

made, crossing peak after peak, hadn’t brought us any closer to home. We’d even

man’s foreign tongue threw us all into disarray. Upon seeing our confused faces, the owner of the cottage seemed to further mistake our intentions. He waved his axe at us threateningly in a bid to chase us off his

woman, approximately sixteen years of age, ran out of the

woman urgently conferred with the man for a while. He then grew noticeably calmer and lowered

a few hesitant motions with her hands in

tell if he understood. He did, however, let us into

walls were caked with soot,

lamp hung from the ceiling, the sort that farming villages would have used decades ago. The lamp burned dimly at a bare fifty watts, probably to save

roof of the cottage was, in fact, a tent

covered the tent looked sure to be full

bowls from a cabinet and placed them

continued to gesture

The food was steeped in chili. Nora recoiled

try it?” Tabitha exclaimed rather adventurously. She had more of an appetite than the rest of

day, we dug in rather gratefully. The flavor of

been a few days since we’d really tasted anything. The

his daughter squatted in a corner. They gazed at us with curiosity and awe, mixed with a tinge of

in her attempts to communicate with them. Along with her hand signals, she deliberately

understand that we were here to borrow a