The Only Thing That Has Changed in 500 Years

love in the time of covid

Katt asks me, “Tim, do you know how to French braid?”

Her hair falls all the way down her back to her waist in waves and curls, and I see she’s dyed some of it red. The rest is the perfect shiny black of Alaska Native hair.

It’s not the sort of thing we usually talk about.

Katt and I are the skeleton crew at an empty worker’s camp on Alaska’s North Slope.…