My family doesn't believe me because no one else saw it, but one evening, on the way to dinner out, I saw a chicken strolling along down the side of the road we were driving on, like it was just out for a little walk.

She couldn't believe there was school today. Didn't adults ever look around and think, "What a beautiful day. Who wants to be inside? Let's cancel school and spend the day taking in the beautiful snow-coated trees." And whose idea was it to equip the buses with whatever tires were required to drive in 4 inches of snow? That guy needed a life. As soon as the bus came chugging around the corner, the trees would tremble and all the beauty would be rattled to the ground where it would turn ash-colored and sad. And why couldn't it have snowed for another couple of hours, anyway? An hour or 2 delay, at least, in the beginning of school. That would give her a little more time to finish writing the paper she had been certain last night that she wouldn't have to hand in today. Stupid NOT-snowday.

Out past her bedtime, she cherished her date with Dad.

The future loomed large...

The house I lived in from 4th grade until I went off to college had a wood stove in the basement. It was a great way to heat the house, but only if someone lit it fairly early in the morning and it was tended all day. On cold winter Saturdays, we could actually put away our wool sweaters and wear short sleeves by mid-afternoon. Weekdays weren't nearly so toasty since everyone was gone to work or school all day and couldn't light it before 3 in the afternoon. The ceiling in the basement was one of those drop ceilings with the panels that fit in the grid, and the panel next to the vent that sent heat upstairs was broken. Somehow and for some reason our cat kept climbing into the hole and getting trapped. She'd sit in the ceiling and mew loudly until we realized where she was and rescued her through the vent upstairs. Eventually my parents covered the hole with newspaper or something. For a few weeks after, though, she could still be found sitting under the hole and staring at it like it might open for her.

Elephant enthusiasts might object to the geographical inaccuracy represented here.

Ms. Muffin knew that Something had moved in the grass by the path to the entrance to the Warmthandfood Structure. She also knew that It would move again. So she waited, ready for what she was certain would ultimately be her victory over the small Whateveritwas that was no match for her Feline Superiority. Ms. Muffin also knew that the warmth of the Sun on her furry back was saying that she could catch the Thing, whenever it reappeared, even if she dozed while she waited…

Six
birds or
three? Reflected in
the glassy pewter colored
surface of the
soil scented
lake.

Alyssa woke one morning with an image from a dream that followed her all day. The world in her dream was all black and white except for the tangerine-colored cocktail dress she had been wearing. All morning that dress kept popping into her head at the oddest times: while she was buttering her English muffin, passing under the interstate on the train, in the middle of her weekly staff meeting. During her lunch hour, Alyssa bought a croissant from the sandwich cart and headed out to window shop, like usual. She loved looking at the mannequins in their designer clothes and imagining the places she would wear each outfit. She especially loved watching the window dressers working like they were that day. Standing outside the big window in front of Lancy’s Clothiers, she ate her croissant and watched the girls set clothes in front of the bare mannequins. Near the bottom of one of the stacks of brightly colored folded cloth, something caught her eye. It was the same orange she had seen in her dream. She watched breathlessly as one of the window dressers bent and gently shook the garment to unfold it. Alyssa gasped and actually dropped the last little piece of her croissant. The girl in the window was holding the dress from her dream!