It was a bumpy ride.
Her body was aching, and she felt she was about to throw up everything she just had.
On the contrary, Sammy was sleeping soundly in that bumpy cart. He was snoring, which Natalia found impressive.
Seeing he was almost bumped off the seat, Natalia leaned forward and supported him.
She only sat back when she was sure he was seated and still leaning on the wall.
At the same time, she was counting down the time in her mind.
There was no clock in the village, nor did she have a watch. She could only know the time of sunrise and sunset by estimating.
That felt horrible, but she had to overcome it because she had no choice.
About half an hour later, the cart finally stopped.
"Sammy, here we are!"
The young man's voice came from outside.
Natalia was awoken. She couldn't wait to lift the curtain and poked her head out to check.
It was dark out there. She couldn't see a spark of light; actually, she couldn't see anything at all.
The man across the carriage clicked his tongue and woke up.
"Ah-huh? Already?"
"Yes, your home is just behind that ridge; the cart can't get over it, so you may have to get down and walk over."
Sammy lifted the curtain and got off the cart. Then he nodded and said, "Thank you for today. You can go back now."
The young man nodded and waited for Natalia to get off the cart. Then he led the cart in the opposite direction.
Sammy stood there and stretched himself. Then he waved his hand to Natalia.
"Let's go. My home is just around the ridge."
Natalia didn't say anything. She followed him and headed forward.
The mountain was rocky, not to mention they were walking on the ridge.
She had to take cautious steps. The ridge was too narrow for her to stride freely, even with Sammy holding a torch in front of her.
Sammy laughed out.
"You're so spoiled, city girl. Women in our village walked quickly on mountain paths, let alone the ridges.
Natalia didn't know how to respond, so she only smiled awkwardly.
Sammy hummed a song. He seemed to be in a good mood and was staggering on his feet.
They walked on one ridge after another.
Finally, they stopped at a two-story stone brick house.
It was the only house that wasn't built with mud that Natalia had seen in the past few days.
As they approached, they saw a clearing in front of the house.
The clearing had a high haystack on one side. The door to the house was closed; there was faint light coming out of the window upstairs.
Sammy walked to the door and knocked hard on it.
"Woman. I'm home!"
Soon the door creaked and opened.
Natalia saw a woman in puffy PJ with messy hair.
She might be in her forties. With a kerosene lamp in her hand, she took a look at Sammy and Natalia, and then she frowned.
"Why are you so late? Who is she?"
"A friend of the girl's. She said they were together. Terry told me to bring her over."
Sammy said as he led Natalia in.
Natalia felt a bit cold inside because the house was walled by stone.
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