Season of the Dragonflies (40 page)

“Oh yeah?”

“I'm coming back so I can birth him at the cabin.”

Lucia wasn't sure she'd heard her right. “Him?”

“That's right.”

Lucia placed one hand on her belly and Grace began to kick, finishing with one swift jab beneath a rib. Lucia adjusted herself in the driver's seat and said, “Get home soon then.”

“We're in transit.”

Lucia heard static and called out for her sister, then the line went dead and she dropped the phone in the seat next to her. All those crushed rose petals Mya and Lucia had rained down had pieced themselves together. Lucia switched on her headlights to help her navigate in the dark. Of all the lives she could've had, this was the only one she wanted.

Many thanks to the following:

Alexandra Machinist, for discovering me in the slush pile and following your intuition. Rachel Kahan, editor extraordinaire. I can't imagine this novel without your suggestions. And Laura Cherkas, for your keen eye. I am indebted to all of you, and to everyone at William Morrow.

My colleagues at Queens University of Charlotte, especially Charles Israel, Julie Funderburk, Mike Kobre, and Melissa Bashor for reading drafts of this novel (and others) and supporting me. Boris Vinatzer, associate professor of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science at Virginia Tech, for answering all of my questions about plant science.

All my dearest friends, especially Megan Ihlefeld, Matthew Lee, and Jennifer McGroarty, for leading lives of adventure and sharing those stories with me. Nina de Gramont and David Gessner, for showing me what it means to live and love as writers.

My mother, Chareatha Franklin, and my sister, Rachel Ripley, for being first readers and never doubting what I hoped to achieve. My daughters, Mimi Creech and Hattie Creech, for understanding why I spend so much time in front of my laptop.

And my husband, Morri Creech, for promising.

Born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
SARAH CREECH
grew up in a house full of women who told stories about black cloud visions and other premonitions. Her work has appeared in
storySouth, Literary Mama, Aroostook Review, Glass,
and
Glimmer Train
. She received an MFA in 2008 and now teaches English and creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. She lives in North Carolina with her two children and her husband, a poet. This is her first novel.

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Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

Cover illustration by Kate Hiscock/Imagebrief.com

Author photograph by Magen Portanova

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SEASON OF THE DRAGONFLIES
. Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Creech. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Designed by Lisa Stokes

ISBN 978-0-06-230752-1

EPub Edition July 2014 ISBN 9780062307576

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