Time Stands Still

"...and as the man was hurtling through the air, he caught sight of his Lucky Stone flying alongside him. As he stretched his arm out to hold it, his life did more than flash before his eyes. He was everything, and he was nothing, and he was a boy, and he was an old man, and he his head was in the oven, and his wife lay curled to his chest when he hit the ground. When everything stopped, and when something else started.

Soon they found him, and were surprised to find his hand clenched so tightly around a small white rock. It was pried open, and the stone was thrown away."

Life Becomes Real

"...The boy had been born. But it didn't cry. They did. The mother and father decided that their next child, the second-born, would be the one to live up to those lost expectations..."

Signs Of Life

"...She looked down at her stomach, and felt a tiny stir. Her firstborn child was soon to be born. An innocent, perfect, beautiful baby boy..."