And again, the knots in her stomach melted away. She rejoiced inside. Over and over her faith had flagged, and over and over the Lord had sent her signs of his love and approval. That’s what trusting in reason gets you, she admonished herself, fear and pain. God is watching out for me. Her childish fear of bears faded away. Suddenly the world, and her future, felt bright and exciting again. After years of delay she was finally on the doorstep of Zion.

“Jonah, I’m ready to go. You lead the way and I will follow.”

It took about an hour for Sasha to decide that she liked camping, and then two more hours to decide that she never wanted to camp ever again. By the time they stopped for the night she’d gouged herself open on half a dozen different tree branches, smashed her left toe into a rock and somehow managed to draw every allergen on the east coast into her nose. The headaches from her improvised surgery and her throbbing sinuses warred for dominance. She couldn’t sleep, food had no taste, and her hands were too grubby and, generally, snotty, to allow her to read her Bible.

Jonah was not as talkative as Brother Andrew. He’d given her a brief run-down of things to avoid out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He told her how to recognize timber rattlers, diamondbacks, and copperheads, although for some reason she had much more trouble retaining that information than she’d had memorizing the Pythagorean theorem, or the date and importance of the Battle of Hastings. She was supposed to watch for pointy heads, she knew that. But every time a snake slithered past her, it moved way, way too fast for her to tell the shape of its head.

Other than that quick lecture and a few admonishments for her to “step lightly,” Jonah hadn’t said much. He’d given her food, protein bars and nuts mostly. He’d been kind enough to let her snuggle with the heated blanket he’d brought along. She knew she’d gotten snot on it but he never complained.

When they settled into camp on the second night, Sasha was surprised to see her coyote start to gather wood and build a fire. He laughed when he saw the dumbfounded look on Sasha’s face. He pulled out a small yellow bottle of lighter fluid, squirted it onto the wood, and then lit the edge of it with his lighter. The fire leapt to life, burning away at the pine needles until they caught the smaller sticks and limbs stacked in a small box. Next, he pulled two silver pouches out of his backpack and handed both to her. The labels informed her that one contained Chicken and Dumplings and the other Macaroni and Cheese. Her mouth was watering before the first “and.”