It was at one of those activity-type parties. The ones where people are always trying to think up new ways of confusing others; games with hidden clues and clever dodges.

This time they picked on a few of the girls who were sent out while the game was prepared. Then they were called back one by one.

The first was suspicious and caught on right away. No fun there! The next was a little more accepting, but soon saw the scheme. But the last...

Turning on the hinge of summer’s end, the day changes to the cool of evening. Already the first yellow leaves are falling in the stillness, reminder notes that winter comes, cold and surely.

But for the moment the warmth remains, and I sit watching children at school. Holidays over, they begin again--back to school. Laughing, smiling in the sun, playing ball. Lives full of promise among the falling leaves. A parable of life—us, ourselves—beings of promise and potential among the curled-up dryness of a dying world.