EXTRACT: CH 36 Daughterness

“Then why did you leave us?” she asked. “And why did Mommy have to lie to us for all these years?” 

Just then the kettle began boiling. She didn’t know why, but the whistling sound sent a chill down her spine everytime. It reminded her of  steam hissing from the pistons of a locomotive. To her, it felt like she was standing on a station platform watching a train chugging in.

“Hey … Shanti, are you okay?” he asked, his hands still out-stretched. “You looked like you were miles away.”

EXTRACT: CH 30 In black and White

To an outsider, it would have looked like a beautiful winter’s day. The young friends laughed and played in the crisp air, like carefree students on holiday or on a romantic getaway. The worries of war and death, fleetingly, for a thankful moment, banished from their minds. Their laughter wafted across the open expanse through the barn doors and over the deafened ears of the dead farmer and his wife buried underneath the haystack.