How to Fly

In "Hawk," a lonely carpenter on his way to work spots an enormous bird that slams against his van and drops the snake it was clutching into his lap. Soon, the story spreads across his tiny town, and changes, and expands: his neighbors snatch pencils he has used to write love letters, his license-plate numbers to play the lottery. From him, now, they expect stories and miracles.
In "Elysia By Light of Snow Lantern," an ice sculptor returns to a tourist city with the first snow, just as she does every year, but this time suffers such profound heartbreak that both she and winter decide to stay.
In "When Lake Michigan Leaves," an outsider to a small community falls in love with a lake everyone else takes for granted: she sleeps on its beaches, covers herself in birch leaves and driftwood, shares silent toasts and bottles of wine with it; but, over time, feels it drift away like an uninterested lover: a drop at first, and then gallons and waves.
In "Sullivan's Inventory," a quiet man content to stock shelves at the local grocery shocks his colleagues when he disappears one day with a customer who buys beautiful, unexpected things.
In "Nests," a woman desperate to flee from her home and all its memories decides instead to help the endangered warblers that come and go each year but don't realize their nests are being invaded by more aggressive birds. In return, she thinks, the least they can do is teach her how to fly.

Rachael Perry lives in South Lyon, Michigan, and would especially like to thank Jane Almirall, a beautiful artist, for permission to use "The Marvel of Flight" on this book cover.