Chapter 18 - “I Never Had a Wife”
Years later, the story became a family joke.
Everyone remembered the evening Elias had sat at Aayoka and Nara's table.
Nara repeated his words whenever possible.
“I never had a wife.”
Elias groaned every time.
At Thanksgiving one year, Thomas raised his cup.
“To Elias Ward, the man who announced he never had a wife approximately ten minutes before deciding to spend the rest of his life near one.”
Everyone laughed.
Aayoka leaned against Elias.
“You could still leave.”
He looked around.
Nara.
Thomas.
Mara.
Friends.
Neighbors.
A house filled with warmth.
Children laughing near the hearth.
Snow outside.
The smell of bread.
The same sort of ordinary sounds he once believed had disappeared forever.
“Where would I go?”
Aayoka smiled.
“That was the correct answer.”
Later that night, Elias stood on the porch.
He remembered the man who had first ridden into this valley.
That man believed loneliness protected him.
He understood him.
He even forgave him.
May you like
But he no longer wanted to be him.
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