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hill, but no one approached her. They were near the spot where he and Chick rested earlier when she turned to him.
    “Wait here, I won’t be long,” she said, as she handed him back his jacket.
    She took off her shoes and walked to the flat ground by the tree. She stood facing the hill with her arms outstretched, and her head tilted to the moonlit sky. For several minutes, she remained in that position. After a time, she began to sway and move her feet. More time passed while Sarah slow danced to the sound of the wind brushing the grass.
    He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he watched her and he knew he was falling in love. He realized it the first time he saw her. It frightened him in a way he had never felt before. He did not expect to find romance in this place and yet here he was, on the day of his arrival, on the verge of losing his heart to a girl he barely knew.
     
    Alex had lost all perception of time when Sarah walked back to him. His watch was still in his pants pocket, and he was beginning to like it there. Sarah sat next to him, put on her sandals, and wrapped the jacket around her shoulders. For a time, words went unspoken. Alex was fine with that. He could have asked her why she danced alone at the top of a hill, or why she was so secretive of her past, but for now, he was content to let her remain a mystery. Her presence next to him was more than enough.
    “We’ll leave now,” Sarah said.
    She stood up and, before Alex could react, began the walk back to the house. He jumped up and moved beside her, vowing not to speak unless asked. He wasn’t.
     
    Sarah stopped when they were on the porch.
    “Thank you so much for the jacket,” she said as she took it off and handed it to him. She entered the house and disappeared in the shadows before he could speak. Alex stood there for a minute hoping that she would return to the front door and smile at him, or throw him a kiss. He refused to believe this wonderful evening would have such an abrupt end.
    He sat back down on the front stoop and was surprised to feel Jezebel again rubbing against him. He scratched her head and heard her soft purring. For the longest time he sat like that, scratching the cat’s head and holding his jacket still warm from Sarah’s shoulders. When the temptation became too strong, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch. It was almost midnight. Ashbury Street was quiet and so was the house. Alex suddenly felt tired. He stood and quietly walked into the foyer, up the dangerous stairs, past the storytelling room, where Sarah might be sleeping, down the corridor, and through the beads, to his room. Four of the six mattresses held blanket covered sleepers. He saw a blanket on his mattress also, with a pillow to boot.
    He quietly stripped down to his underwear and pulled the cover away from his bed. There on a freshly cleaned sheet, directly below his pillow was a flower. He picked it up by the stem and examined it closely and then put it up to his nose and smelled it, smiling the entire time.
    Later that night as he lay sleeping, a jacket pressed to his chest and a flower on his pillow, a half-blind, oh so finicky black cat curled up next to him, purring contentedly.

THE KINGDOM OF ALWAYS
    The Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco is a relatively small parcel of land as one might see it by air. It is enclosed by Fulton Street at its uppermost end, with the Golden Gate Park and Stanyan Street on its left. Divisadero Street, which becomes Castro Street, is on its right and is blocked in at the bottom by 17th Street. Inside its perimeters are three small parks, Buena Vista, Corona Heights, and the Panhandle.
    At one time, it was a melting pot of blue and white-collar workers, Blacks, and Orientals. In 1965, things began to change. Perhaps a historian could determine the exact date a new culture was born, but it is unlikely. At some point, the wind shifted ever so slightly and the streets of Haight-Ashbury began