Sometimes, the hardest thing in the world is to mesh what you are with what you used to be.

"Okay."


She used to be surrounded by people in Green Lake. Everyone loved the pretty schoolteacher with the soft voice and the tongue for poetry, the spiced peaches that could not be bested at any picnic or fair. She's grown used to being alone these past few years.

Sometimes it feels like an ill-fitting skin.

She comes out from behind the screen, dressed for bed and attempting to braid her hair.

"Get some sleep. We'll worry 'bout the details tomorrow."