Free When Grnadfather Journeys Into Winter by Craig Kee Strete

WHEN GRANDFATHER JOURNEYS INTO
WINTER
    by Craig Kee Strete
CHAPTER ONE
    Tayhua stared at the boy as he came down the
trail from the top of the mesa. Tayhua's daughter, Elk Woman came up beside him. She said, "What
do you think of your grandson."
    "I think the world of him," said the old man
as his eyes followed the boy down the steep rocky trail. He held his hands out in front of him
like a man who held the world in his hands.
    "He is much like his father, with his
father's eyes and smile. I am sorry he is not to hear to see him," said Elk Woman. Pride and
sorrow was in her voice in equal measure.
    "Long are the days since he left the world.
Your heart should be calm about this now. Time has seen many summers and it should have healed
you."
    "Even though one year follows another, there
is no day in which I do not miss him," Elk Woman said with a look of sorrow on her
face.
    "He would be proud as I am proud. He left a
big treasure in the world. This grandson is his gift to you and me."
    "It still does not ease the ache in my
heart. When my husband died I felt it ruined my life, then and forever."
    Tayhua put his arm around his daughter. "But
there was glory. That is what we live for. We hold on to glory. You had two good years with him.
His death could never take that away. You will always have those two years."
    Tayhua saw movement in the cactus and the
rocks at the edge of his herb medicine garden. Something stirred.
    The old man held up his hand, motioning for
Little Thunder to stop moving toward him. The old man was not afraid. Too far away to see the
snake, Little Thunder kept coming down the trail. Now he was just ten feet from his mother and
the old man.
    The rattlesnake moved, his head coming up,
sensing a disturbance in the rocks around him. His sensitive tongue darted out to test the wind.
The heavy steps of Little Thunder on the rocky path had awaken the snake from its sleepy vigil in
the noonday sun.
    Startled, the snake moved away from Little
Thunder and toward grandfather.
    The old man sat there calmly, the wind
blowing his braids gently in the wind. The snake moved quickly, his shiny skin bright in the sun
and his eyes aglitter like two unwinking jewels.
    The snake approached the toe of the old
man's cowboy boots. Now the old man was still as a tree. His daughter, Elk Woman, held up her
hand in Little Thunder's direction. She too signaled the boy, cautioning him not to
move.
    "Hello brother rattlesnake," said the old
man.
    The snake raised his head until it rested on
the toe of the old man's worn boots.
    "I am too big to eat," said the old man with
a smile.
    The snake hissed, uncertain at the sound of
the voice.
    "And I am so insignificant, that it would be
a waste of poison to bite me. Best to move on brother snake. Otherwise, I might bite
you."
    The rattlesnake moved suddenly. It went up
and over the toe of the old man's boot, its skin dragging across the rough leather of the boot.
As quickly as it had appeared, the snake was gone. There was a dry rattle in the wind, a last
flurry as the snake shook it's tail and it disappeared in the rocks at the end of the rock
garden.
    Little Thunder stood in front of them. He
did not know why they had motioned him to stop. "Is something wrong?"
    "No. Come sit with us in the sun. There was
a rattlesnake. You made more noise on the path than a buffalo herd and you scared the
rattlesnake, that is all."
    "I'm not afraid of rattlesnakes!" said
Little Thunder. "Blue Houseroof says he is going to show me how to catch them."
    "You stay away from Blue Houseroof. He is a
joker. You leave the rattlesnakes alone. This is not something you need to know how to do," said
his mother firmly.
    Little Thunder came and sat down on a big
rock in front of his grandfather.
    "I guess I will learn how to catch them if I
want to," said Little Thunder. "I'm old enough and pretty quick, don't you think so
Grandfather?"
    The old man just smiled.
    His