
The elder told the same joke, and the yard laughed on the same beat as always. But there's a line of footprints in the snow toward the water that wasn't there yesterday.
Whose footprints?
Footprints don't follow the tide. People do.

The elder told the same joke, and the yard laughed on the same beat as always. But there's a line of footprints in the snow toward the water that wasn't there yesterday.