Five short stories. Five people. From Paris to Honolulu. At moments that matter most, each is all alone. But it’s then that she has the clearest vision of herself.At a Paris Café. In early 70s Paris, a naive and eager young man chooses not to go with his buddies on a trip around the country on his summer vacation. He goes it alone in Paris.The Gypsy. A boy recently uprooted to Paris by his parents’ divorce learns some life lessonsfrom an old gypsy he watches through a third-floor apartment window.The Sum of a Young Life. Finding a young woman’s journal at a Berkeley coffeehouse upsets anurbane but blasé young man’s precise routine.In a Few Fast Heartbeats. After her husband’s heart surgery, a middle-aged wife and mother istaking him home, back to the old comforting routine. But her life changes in the blink of an eye.Fragrant Green Mangoes. A young woman loses her beloved Grandma after her most recentvisit. In her grief, she finds the language of love, not in roses, but in fragrant green mangoes.

High Connections
After her mother died, Tara Jackson-Smith lost her way. She struggled with her exam revision and made some bad choices.