When the sun began to set, painting the ridges in gold. Nairo was outside hanging damp clothes near the fire. Elias sat on the porch carving a small piece of wood. He didn't plan to speak, but the words came anyway. I used to have a wife, he said quietly.
Naira turned slowly. He didn't look at her. Before the war, he continued. Her name was Clara. She got sick the winter after I came back.
Fever took her before spring. We didn't have children. He paused, the sound of his knife steady against the wood. After that, I stopped trying to make anything last. Naira didn't move closer, but her voice softened.
And now he met her gaze then, his eyes tired but clear. Now I don't know. You make me forget for a while. For a moment neither spoke. The wind pushed smoke from the fire between them, carrying the faint smell of cedar.
Naira walked toward him, slow, deliberate. She took the carving from his hand and turned it in her fingers. It was a small horse, rough but careful. "You remember her through this? " she asked. "I remember her through the quiet," he said.
She placed the carving on the porch rail, looked at him, and said, "The quiet doesn't belong to her anymore. It was the closest either had come to admitting what was growing between them. " That night, after dinner, they sat together inside the cabin. The fire light cast their shadows on the wall, long and wavering. Elias poured two cups of coffee, though was bitter and weak. Tomorrow, he said, you'll see the town.
It's not much, just dust, traitors, and people trying to forget their past. Naira smiled faintly. Sounds familiar. Before bed, she lingered by the fire, her eyes tracing the worn lines of the cabin. You built this place alone?
He nodded. Every board took me almost a year. Thought it would keep me safe from the world. And does it? He thought for a moment.
It did until you walked in. She gave him a long look, unreadable, then turned to her blanket. Then maybe it's time to build something else. He didn't answer, but her words stayed with him through the night. The next day, they rode to Silver Mesa.