Ruth: Reimagined

Vision

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Vision
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"Good morning, love."

Looking at her, in all her morning glory, his heart ached. Elimilek placed a kiss on Naomi's cheek. She laid beside him, eyes fluttered shut, the features of her face relaxed. Her long, wavy hair was pulled up into a bun, out of her face.

Placing another kiss, feathered yet firm, on her forehead, her nose, then her cheeks again, he spoke. "Naomi."

Moments passed with peppered kisses and endearing words whispered in the ear of his deep sleeper of a wife before she woke up.

When she finally started stirring, mumbling words under her breath, his heart pounded against his chest, brimming with hope.

Naomi's eyes fluttered open. She met his stare, the warmth, familiar and welcoming, in a blink, it was gone.

As she came into her senses, he recognized the cold look in her eyes, devoid of joy.

She sat up, and he sat up with her as she loosened her hair from its bun, letting it fall by her shoulders while releasing a sigh.

"Good morning, Naomi."

She turned to look at him, acknowledging the sound of his voice, and she nodded. And with one last, too-short glance, she left the room.

With an aching heart that had been that way for three days, his throat felt raw.

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It was a quiet supper, utterly unnerving to the family of four, seated around the table, who ate the lamb with soup and bread. Elimilek, who sat at the head of the table, ate with his gaze fixed on his wife Naomi, who looked down at her food.

Mahlon couldn't meet the eyes of his father, just like it had been for the past three days. The guilt fell heavily upon his shoulders and brought distress to his thoughts.

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"-but there's something else. I made a promise that I wouldn't marry any of my sons to any Moabite woman. We will not intermarry with them. You have to promise me that you won't marry a Moabite woman, that the wives you choose will be Israelites."

A silence ensued.

"I need you to promise me this. Otherwise, we can't go."

Mahhlon and Chillion didn't even have to think about it. They shared a look with each, the respect and trust in their father firm in both expressions, and they looked back at their father.

"We promise father," they said simultaneously. "We will not marry Moabite women."

" I saw sheep today," Chillion said, trying to break the silence but failing terribly. "Although, I see them every day, so..."

Nothing. Not even facial expressions changed.

" In other news, the pomegranates have rotted. It turns out they don't last very long. I tried to eat them, savour the taste... it gave me an upset stomach, so I threw them out."

Naomi's brow raised in concern, Mahlon shook his head, and Elimilek's nostrils flared as he released a sigh.

"I hope you didn't give those rotten pomegranates to the animals or leave them where they graze."

"No, father, I didn't." Chillon quickly defended.

Elimilek nodded.

A silence ensued, and the whole table lost interest in Chillion's rotten pomegranates.