1. All the kids are looking forward to their winter break.

There’s a school-sponsored ski

trip, and one girl is aching to go so she can try snowboarding for the first time.

2. A woman is walking alone on a beach in the summer twilight (or at dawn) when
something happens that completely changes her life.

3. A woman leaves her teenage kids alone for the summer.

4. The leaves turned gold and amber, and then they drifted to the ground. We raked them
into mounds then leaped and landed.

5. There’s a quiet cracking sound, and then an apple falls, twirling to the ground below
and bruising itself against the hard earth.

6. Deer bound across the field, breaking delicate blades of grass with hard hooves,
pausing to dine on soft flowers.