Trip to Palestine

Paige Ballard wiped the sweat from her brow as Malachi lulled her 94 year-old body with his rocking hump. Paige bent over and patted the thick fur of the old camel. Malachi had made the short trip many times and needed little direction to his destination.

The old woman had booked a ticket on the desert-caravan to Palestine when she received the news that her second cousin, Kaitlyn Davison, was ill. Both girls were born four months apart in 2009, and the cousins were as close as sisters.

As Paige dozed atop her ride, she thought about her grandmother, Ann Mellon. During the 2040’s, Granny was obsessed with Global-Warming and constantly predicted doomsday results of the inhabitants’ abuse of the planet. “Those gas-guzzling tin cans need to be taken off the road. The exhaust fumes and the refineries are ruining the planet, Paige.”

We should have listened to you, Granny. Now, it‘s too late, Paige thought as their guide announced the approach to their destination. The caravan made good time of the hundred-mile trip. Paige had departed from her home in Dallas just thirty-six hours ago. Palestine, Texas, was just up ahead.