The Thirsty Earth by David Valentine Bernard

Author:David Valentine Bernard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strebor Books

In his mind, he kept seeing the policemen’s car stalking Maitland’s. The image made him uneasy, so that his pace was slow as he began the long walk up the mountain. At the same time, he was thankful that he had actually made it through the day without revealing his secret. There were going to be challenges ahead, but today was Friday, and he had survived for three days on his own. He told himself things would get easier once he had time to sit down and think and breathe without panic and fear getting in the way of his thoughts. In the months and years ahead, he would have to be strong, and trust himself—not to always make the right decisions, but to find solutions once he inevitably veered off course. The fear of failure would always be in the back of his mind, given all that was at stake if anyone ever discovered his secret, but he had to stride boldly into the unknown if he was ever going to survive. He thought about Maitland then, wondering if that same mindset was why the man was still able to smile.

Unfortunately, when the town was behind him, and he was alone on the mountain road, some of the dark thoughts began to return—not about his ability to survive, but about what survival on the island would strip from his soul. Even though his grandmother had been dead for three days now, this would be the first time he would be returning to an empty house. That was how he thought about the place on the mountain: as an empty house, not as a home. A home, he understood at least subconsciously, was the place one went to replenish one’s soul—not merely the place where one kept one’s stuff and slept and performed the mechanical tasks of survival. Now that his grandmother was gone, the house would always be missing that special component that transformed wood and nails and concrete into a home. If he was going to survive on the island, he would either have to find a new home or chase death and misery away from the house on the mountain.

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