Like the flash and dart of dragonflies, other busy lives surround ours as we prance unaware through our own world. Each absorbing story portrays a powerful sense of place, even when life's smaller crises are held up to the light. It is the everyday challenges that define us, after all. From the joys and exasperations of daily living to magical realism, from Old Man Shever to The Refuge, these 17 stories weave a colorful tapestry of life's discoveries.
Excerpt
Rain began falling in a fury. Against her will, Sadie broke into a run, dodging some elderly citizens and mothers with strollers, all equally anxious to get inside somewhere.
She reached the sandstone building accompanied by a brilliant flash of lightning that stopped her in mid-run for a second. Then she hared up a narrow stairway to the door marked Peabody, Schuster and Clark.
Thunder boomed again as she grasped the handle, turning it and swinging open the door in one motion. The old gentleman's watery blue eyes peered at her from behind the haphazard array of folders, books and ancient wire baskets on his desk.
"Well, Miss Johnson…," he said, looking at the clock. "You, er, are on time to say the least! And not a little noisy about it, either."
He chuckled at the joke, a strange A-hah, a-hah, a-hah.
Sadie closed the door behind her, revealing a dark-haired figure who lounged in the old wooden chair in the corner. As always, he was clad in workaday denim and boots.
"Chuck!"
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