Into the Wilderness

by Sara Donati

Elizabeth could see no sign of his early trauma in him: he was nothing more than an ordinary man preoccupied with a goal, and insensible of his surroundings.

And it was then that she discovered that it was possible to be terribly frightened and extraordinarily, inconceivably happy, all in the same breath.

It was a hot, searing kind of pain that spiraled instantaneously into a great burst of color, but it didn’t last long.

She had the knack of righteous indignation without bitterness, but for how long?

“Chingachgook was a good man, and now he’s gone. The Mohawk know the difference between the quick and the dead, and they don’t make young folk stop livin’ when the old move on ahead.

“Sennonhtonnon’?” What are you thinking?