Bobbie Van Sant was Rachel’s enemy from the very start, so what went down in Mrs. Hunter’s class on Career Day was inevitable. Rachel remembers Mrs. Hunter’s lurid tangerine polyester pantsuit and the little white scarf she used to tie around her neck. During presentations... Continue

Rachel makes a quick visit to Joan’s house and discovers she’s gone out for a spin in the Jag – a risky adventure that often ends with a tow truck. She tidies up a bit, waters the garden, changes the water for the Shirleys, then... Continue

An hour after Philip and Colin part ways, Colin is standing on a strip of dead grass in the faculty parking lot, holding a small box of personal belongings. The rest of his things he gave away or dumped or put in a storage locker... Continue

Rachel returns to the stoop. At least a half-hour passes while she watches the bees buzz around the lavender. Outside the house, Rachel feels free. Inside the house lies an unbroken promise of thankless toil. She hears the television blaring, forgotten in the morning rush.... Continue

The continuing saga of a beleaguered Sonoma mother of five on the trail of a missing emerald necklace – the legendary Green Tara. Colin cleans his glasses with his handkerchief and smiles to himself as his colleague Professor Philip Atwater -- The Eeyore of the English... Continue

The continuing saga of a beleaguered Sonoma mother of five on the trail of a missing emerald necklace – the legendary Green Tara. Rachel often fantasizes about living in a Buckeye Creek Estates home. She admits this to no one. She imagines the luxury of having... Continue

After powering up his aging laptop and waiting for the signal, Felix checks the classifieds. Nothing. He throws the paper on the table. Whatever is happening in the present seems irrelevant. Poverty is timeless that way, thinks Felix. It could be last year’s paper and... Continue

By mid-morning, news of the forgery reaches the attentive ears of a Felix Echeverria in Los Banos, California. Felix is a man of both questionable fortune and exquisite taste -- a man who, at the start of his seventy-first year, has washed up on the... Continue