A Bird in the Window
ShortStory 5,712 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"The first time I saw her, she stood in the arch of the gate, a black spindle against the open stretch of road. I looked up from where I was kneeling in the garden and couldn’t look away. Head to toe in black, her face veiled. The air smelled like new turned earth, sunlight. When the gates shut behind her, she didn’t flinch."
Quasar links out; the story lives on BCS, where the author gets the click.