After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.

There is no escape if love is not there

the demons that make a person afraid are the hardest to cast out.

There is no escape if love is not there," Hannah had said. Had Hannah known when she herself had not even suspected? It was not escape that she had dreamed about, it was love.

From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own.

There was something irresistible about popcorn.

She snatched at the dream that had comforted her for so long. It was faded and thin, like a letter too often read.