The brightness somehow increased through the thin layer of his eyelids. He did not open his eyes, but heard a man respond to the woman. There was a melody to their interaction that harmonized with the choir and the birdsong floating through the garden.

I waved out the window as I rode past the hardware store. My mother was standing by the door taking stock of the plants they had for sale. The July sun had things warm, even in the shade.

The sun was setting behind the trees, and the air had a faint orange haze and a smell of smoke from some faraway summertime forest fire. Ezra was in the last house in the neighborhood, rifling through the effects of a long-dead old woman.