Polly's hands were shaking. She didn't know if it was due to excited energy or hunger. 

Today was her first day in New York. She drove up yesterday in her beat-up old Escort that she planned on selling to pay for the deposit on her apartment, when she found one. Her friend from high school, Monica, called her one day, "Come up. You can crash with me for a couple of weeks."

She was both thrilled and terrified. She had visited Monica here in the city before - but this was much…

Willow wrapped herself in a blanket and sat back down on the bleachers. She heard the crack of the bat and could tell by the sound that it was a foul ball.

She was already looking for it, joining both players and spectators in craning their necks to the twilit sky, when Kyle's dad - Willow couldn't remember his name - gave them a warning.

"Heads up," he said and made only half an effort to catch the ball. He was sitting with his elderly mother on the…

I’m here because I’m trying to recapture a memory. More specifically, I’m trying to remember a person who seems to have escaped my memory. She was important to me for a fleeting time between fifth and sixth grades. Karin was my best friend at camp that summer, but all I remember of her was her first name and her white-blonde hair.



So I find myself here, driving up highway 80, then Donner Pass, switching back and forth until…