Winter’s Gate

Elias knew she still slept around.

He didn’t know she was pregnant or that he was the father.

He’d been talking by phone weekly with his uncle Clayton again, a Lakota elder not so tainted by ego. Quiet, modest, respected, good with people and horses. Especially good with the young. Elias was happy to be in touch. The conversations were changing him. Clayton prayed and sang over him at the end of each phone call. Elias felt it, his uncle making him better despite the arc Elias’s life had taken in recent years into greater financial and work success but further from spirit. Further into self. More ambition. Less love.