"Goodbye!" said Mark.
"Take care!" said Elizabeth.
"Thank you so much for the food!" said Jaime.
"Yes! Thank you! It is truly delicious!" said Andrew.
"Thank you for the hospitality of your family!" said Matthew.
"You can come back any time!" replied Elizabeth with a smile.
"Bye Yeshua!" said Akiane.
"May Adonai Bless you, Akiane." said Yeshua with a smile as He places His hand on Akiane's head.
"May Adonai Bless Your journey as well." said Mark. Yeshua nodded as His response and the seven of us began our walk once again. "How far are we from the mountains now?" asked Andrew. "Well, it seemed like the house of the family is in between our town and the mountains. I'm pretty sure we're halfway there, just as Yeshua told us earlier." answered Matthew.
"Seems like we have a navigator here. Thank you, Matthew." said Yeshua happily. "Psh! I can navigate too. It's not that it's a special skill." I heard John mumble from the back. "John?" I gently called John as I matched my pace with his.
John quickly looked at me with a little shock then raised both his eyebrows. "What's up, Maria?" asked John back. I just squint my eyes while looking at him. "What?" asked John again, making me look at him normally. "I heard what you just said." I answered then I looked at Yeshua who was leading us in this walk. "Wait… You said earlier that Teacher can read our thoughts, right?" asked John, sounding a little bit worried.
I looked at him and answered, "Yeah." John then looked at me with wide eyes. "Do you think that Yeshua might not accept me as His student anymore?" asked John as he embraced himself then looked at Yeshua. I gently touched his right shoulder to bring his attention back to me. "He's the Son of God, right? Yeshua. I'm sure that He already knows what choices we will make and what words that we'll speak and what thoughts we will entertain. He already chose you, John. He chose you for a reason." I said to John, trying to calm him.
John took a deep breath and shyly looked at me. "Alice is very lucky to have an older sister like you." the only thing that John said then smiled at me. I smiled back forcefully and he tried to catch up with Jaime. I'm not like this with my younger sister, John. Don't envy her relationship with me over our friendship. While I was looking at John, I saw Yeshua looking back and our eyes met. Yeshua smiled at me softly then looked forward again.
"Maria? You okay?" asked Matthew as he matched my pace. I looked at Matthew then smiled at him. "Yeah. Yes. Uhm-yeah. Why wouldn't I?" I answered then asked Matthew. He raised both his eyebrows while still looking at me. Okay, fine. Nothing gets passed through him. I sighed. "John just told me that he envies my sister because I am her older sister."
Matthew looked at me confusedly, looked at John, then looked back at me, "What? Why?"Well asked, Matthew! "I just gave him comforting words when he's over thinking." I answered. "Does he know how you socialize with Alice?" I shook my head as my response to Matthew, "Only you knew… anand Simon." I answered. "Okay."
I sighed. "John didn't even know how envious I am of the closeness that Jaime and he have, as well as Simon and Andrew. I can't even act like that with her!"