Hearing the joy in the voices of this unlikely trio on their knees, I put my aching body on the ground. Soon I opened my bag—puzzled at why I could open it in the dark but not in the light—and I was laughing too. I got carried away and picked up more stones than I’d intended.

The road was lined by deciduous trees with reds and yellows and oranges against a backdrop of evergreens. Walking up and down gentle slopes, we came to a populated area. At one home, a man in a green polo shirt busily constructed a fence around his garden.

“Have you heard of the King?” Malaiki asked him.

“Certainly. I’m his follower. The name’s Alec.”

“Come, Alec,” Shad said, “walk the road with us.”

“Not today. There’s too much to do. I have urgent business. A fence to build, tomatoes to tend, corn and cucumbers. And some prize-winning roses.” He pointed at the beautiful flowers. “I can’t leave them unattended, can I?”

“Something will always be urgent,” Shad said. “But anything that matters can be done on the journey. We see many beautiful wildflowers. To walk the road is what’s important.”

“I plan to—I’ll have time for it as soon as I’m done with other things.”

“Will you ever be done, Alec?”

“Sure. I’ll finish by tomorrow. The fence, I mean. Then there are the melons—a week at the most. No more than a month.”

“And between now and next month won’t you find more things to postpone the journey?”

“It’s not as if I don’t walk the road. Most days I get out on it, a half-mile down, a half-mile back. I prefer to walk it alone. It’s a private thing, between me and the King.”

“The road is to be walked to its destination,” Malaiki said. “You have to leave some things behind. And the road isn’t meant to be walked alone.”

“I do all right by myself,” Alec said.

“That’s for the King to judge, isn’t it?” Shad asked. He opened the TravelGuide. “It says here travelers must stay with a group of the King’s followers, to help and encourage each other, to keep each other on the path.”

“I’d never have made it this far alone,” I said.

“Perhaps tomorrow,” Alec said. “I’ll catch up with you.”

“Don’t procrastinate obedience,” Shad said. “Don’t put off to tomorrow what the King calls you to do today.”

Alec thought for a moment, then went to a storage shed next to his house and took out a backpack that didn’t look like it had been used in years. He held it in his hands, looking it over, moving it up and down as if weighing it. Finally, he tossed it back in the shed.