Chapter 14 - Elias Ward Draws the Line
Elias visited Samuel's grave three days before the wedding.
Aayoka carried Micah.
They stood beneath a cottonwood overlooking the old ranch.
The house was gone.
Only the stone chimney remained.
Elias placed his hand on the grave marker.
“I was angry with you.”
Aayoka remained several steps away.
“For dying,” Elias continued. “Stupid thing to be angry about.”
Wind moved through the grass.
“I thought if I cared about nobody, nobody could be taken from me.”
He looked toward Aayoka and Micah.
“Turns out that isn't living.”
Micah reached toward him.
Elias lifted his son.
“You would have liked him.”
Aayoka smiled.
Elias's voice broke.
“He looks like you.”
For the first time in four years, Elias cried at Samuel's grave.
Not violently.
Quietly.
Aayoka placed her hand on his back.
Grief did not disappear.
It changed shape.
That evening, Elias drew a line beneath the past.
Not forgetting.
Not forgiving murder.
Simply refusing to let dead men decide how the living spent every remaining day.
He rode home with his family.
Home.
The word no longer meant a cabin.
May you like
It meant them.
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