Lands and Love

chapter 1

             It was not something new for Alva to have a bad night of sleep . In fact she would be surprised if she slept throughout the whole night without waking up every two hours or so. She couldn't place why she had this terrible sleeping cycle but she got used to it over the years. She tossed and turned in her bed , tried every position possible hoping she would feel a bit more relaxed but then she gave up and tossed her sheets aside , cursing beneath her breath in annoyance. She walked barefoot , body slightly shivering , Goosebumps covered her skin as the cold air in her bedroom hit her warm skin. She rubbed her face trying somehow to clear her vision as she walked towards her balcony door and drew the curtains open. She slid the door and carefully stepped outside afraid of the impact of her warm skin with the cold breeze but she adjusted to it soon enough.

She always enjoyed the cold , she wasn't one to wear much clothes; have on layers and layers of shirts and underpants. She prefers to be light in movement , and she didn't like it when she gets warm or how her cheeks and ears take a certain shade of red . If anything she prefers to shake from cold than feel suffocated and hot. But something about cold air always made her relax. Even though her mother hated it , always complaining that she might catch a cold and her sister looks at her like she's insane.

She sighed looking ahead , having the penthouse floor not only comes with a luxurious life style but also with a breath taking view of the city lights , especially in the night time.

She lit up a cigarette inhaling and exhaling , eyes never once leaving the mesmerizing beauty that laid ahead. She wanted to stop smoking , it never really made sense to her as to why she started in the first place, but something about coming back home smelling of cigarettes and trying to sneak back to her room without her mother taking notice of the smell when she was a teenager excited her , made her feel rebellious. She secretly wished her mother would notice , and getting on her nerves kind of excited her as well , made her feel mischievous. And sure enough that day arrived and she got an earful from her mother, she might have over reacted a bit but Alva didn't argue or try to defend herself. Instead she just stood there uninterested , indifferent not even giving a single fuck what her mother was saying , she just watched her face shift from one shade of red to another and she secretly worried as to why she felt not even the slightest bit of remorse for putting her mother in this situation , but again the indifferent part of her was more dominant and she soon shook her mind off the idea.

After finishing off her smoke , Alva walked back inside shutting the slide door behind her. She headed towards her living room , she sat on her leather couch, tanned legs stretched over the coffee table as she placed her laptop over her thighs.

She checked her e.mail for some unread business messages , she didn't find any. But instead she found an unread message from her sister reminding her to book her flight for next week's flight to Tunisia.

Winter break is at the doors , which means olive picking season is also near.

Even though Alva is anything but the typical traditional Arab woman , she, however loved olive picking season. Alva adored Tunisia, even though her parents traveled a lot she got to visit the small country often. As a kid she liked the vibes she got from the place , there wasn't really much to look at comparing to where she traveled and lived before, but there was something she felt whenever she came to visit that she could not describe, Tunisia made her feel warm , warm from the inside, and there weren't many things in her brief years of living that made her experience a similar feeling. So perhaps that's what made it special.

Olive picking season meant everything to Alva as a young girl. Her grandfather, from her mother's side, lived in the country side of Tunisia , way up north. The small village in which they lived is called 'Jougar'. Alva would describe the place as her heaven, the view , the air , the mountains , the trees , the green fields , the orange trees and most importantly olive picking season.

Whenever she tries to speak of the place or try to describe it , words fail her. She got to be free whenever they came to visit. Free to run and jump and scream from the top of mountains, have walks in the open forests , run after chickens and scare off birds. And by the nightfall she would curl up beside grandpa and hear all kinds of scary stories and listen to the sound of the whistling of the wind inside the spacious, open villa. And when the sun rises again she would wander off to live another adventure in the one place she holds dearly in her heart.

Alva's love towards the place could not even match the love she has towards her grandfather, not even in the slightest. He was a 70 year old man , give or take a few, called Bachir. He was farmer throughout his whole life. Even though he lived in the city and studied in one of the well known faculties in Tunisia he chose to go back to his homeland and work as a farmer instead. He loved his work , it was precious to him, his farms meant everything to him, he worked them with such loyalty and devotion and loved every single tree and plant. Bachir was a calm man , wise as the years and experiences he lived would imply, he always saw beyond what a normal eye sees. He notices small details, he notices beauty in the most uncommon places and he had the ability to read beyond a person's exterior no matter how much they tried to hide it.

He saw his granddaughter Alva for the special woman she is, he knew she wasn't an ordinary person, plain and ordinary do not do her justice. She was unique in his eyes, powerful yet fragile. He always resembled her to a dandelion, for she is free, a wildflower that does not need anyone to take care of it. Alva couldn't understand why her father called her that when she was young but she grew to love it.

She loved him deeply because he was the only member of her family that didn't see her as a weird creature, he adored her for everything she is, not once did he try to push to be something she's not. To her he was the realest most sincere person she ever met, and he was the only member of her family that didn't drive her nuts.

As Alva booked her flight, four days before the rest of her family's expected arrival ,She smiled imagining the long walks she'll be having , the fresh air she'd be breathing , and seeing the face she's been missing terribly.