Ruth: Reimagined

Tikvah

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Tikvah
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"Sir, Boaz?"

The young man looked up at him, patient, reverent, awaiting his answer. It was times like this, when he was both baffled and humbled, that he was looked to as the voice of wisdom.

After some thought, he spoke. "No, I don't think one ever really knows when their lives are about to change drastically. The small changes -I think we can catch them. Little hints here and there, but the change that you're talking about, young man, only God knows. Oneday, in the blink of an eye, you'll find yourself surrounded by the galaxies you could've only imagined."

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It took three more days to travel back home. Boaz didn't leave without Shem's wife, cooking him a feast, and the children, pulling him along to play with them- he was exhausted, but having found his old kinnor brought forth, new life.

It was while playing with the children, as they ran across the field, and he caught one them in his arms, while she screeched, laughter tearing out of her, along with the other children's laughter, echoing around him; that he felt for the first time in a long time, a deep well of longing open up in his heart.

He bid the family goodbye, in the warmest embraces and kisses, and then he was off alone, with his carriage and donkey.

Boaz rode home. For him, home wasn't any of the lands or buildings he owned. Instead, home was the people he loved. He rarely ever stayed indoors. He always needed to be outside, doing something, helping someone, meaning something in the real world. Connecting with his people, looking them in the eye.

During the famine, he experienced the deepest loneliness, with people dying from starvation, or war, or people who left the country.

Boaz was shaken to have found himself alone in the midst of a storm. It was a good thing, he didn't have a wife, he would tell himself. He could bear with his suffering, but to bear the suffering of another- was unimaginable.

Boaz got off the donkey when he landed on Tikvah, one of the lands he owned. It was the barley harvest, so a lot of his workers were stationed here, working all day, harvesting the barley. He came to survey the harvest and help where he could, as well as speak with his good friend, Abel.

As he walked through the outskirts of the field, still grasped in his hand was his kinnor, a smile tugged at his lips when looking down on it.

Walking further into the field, he caught sight of the maidens, carrying water from the well, others, seated under the shades of the trees with their baskets. He spotted the men who harvested the barley, sun-burnt, slick with sweat, some of them tearing parts of their upper garments off. Other men were under the shades of trees, pouring water over their bodies, talking with one another, resting for a while.

Boaz walked closer, and when a few of the harvesters met eyes with him, he greeted them all, a warm smile on his face, his green eyes aglow. "Yahweh be with you all!"

"Yahweh bless you!" A few of them replied, then more of them said it, as each noticed the arrival of Boaz, and it became an unsynchronized chorus, of the greetings of his people, that made him smile even more.

He spotted Abel, a small distance ahead. As the man wiped the sweat from his brow, readying himself to keep harvesting. He stopped midway, meeting eyes with Boaz.