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    Crow Roads
    Crow Roads
    Crow Roads
    Ebook32 pages26 minutes

    Crow Roads

    By Charles de Lint

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Short story Crow Roads first appeared in The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, Viking, 2007

    Set outside of Newford in 1967, Annie lives in Tartown with the rest of the poor kids. When a handsome, longhaired hippie shows up outside Ernie's Poolroom, Annie is smitten by his exotic good looks and long black hair. The local boys just want to beat him up, but before they can, the stranger suggests an irresistible contest, which reveals that he may be even more mysterious than he appears.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles de Lint
    Release dateApr 28, 2012
    ISBN9780920623152
    Crow Roads
    Author

    Charles de Lint

    Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.

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    • 4/5
      Typical...enjoyable....de Lint.
    • 5/5
      It's 1967, and Annie is a teenager living in Tartown, outside Newford, a tough area where everyone is poor. One afternoon after school, she's hanging out at the laundromat with a friend, when a very handsome, unusual young man shows up outside Ernie's pool room. His good looks, long black hair, and general hippie look makes him seem an easy target for the local tough boys--and it doesn't turn out the way they expect.Annie winds up spending the afternoon with him, and tries to get a name out of him, other than "Buddy," that the leader of the tough guys gave him. He says he doesn't have a name, unless she wants to give him one.And as they talk, she has to make a choice, about going with him on the Crow Roads, or sticking with her own dream, of going to university and proving that even a girl from Tartown can do something meaningful in the world.It's a short story about thought, feelings, values--and whether one choice really excludes all the others.Recommended.I bought this short story.

    Book preview

    Crow Roads - Charles de Lint

    Crow Roads

    A short story by

    Charles de Lint

    Smashwords edition

    Copyright 2007 by Charles de Lint

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Crow Roads

    Tartown, August 1967

    Yum, Sandra said. Annie, you've got to check this guy out. Hair's way too long, but oh my, otherwise he's swell.

    I lifted my head from last month's 16 Magazine, which someone had left behind in the laundromat, and looked across the street.

    'Swell'? I said. Who says 'swell' anymore?"

    My sister, for one.

    And she still listens to Pat Boone.

    Would you just check him out?

    Who?

    In front of Ernie's.

    As soon as I looked again, I didn't know how I'd missed him. His hair was black and glossy like a crow's feathers, and long—longer than either Sandra's or mine, and ours was past our shoulders. Like the other guys hanging in front of the pool hall, he wore jeans and a T-shirt, but his jeans were bell-bottomed and his T-shirt had a picture of a marijuana leaf on the front.

    And as Sandra had already indicated, he was drop dead handsome.

    I think he's one of those hippies we keep hearing about, Sandra added.

    I didn't think so, but I wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was those tooled leather cowboy boots and the clear look in his eyes when he glanced our way. Weren't hippies usually barefoot and—especially considering the picture on his shirt—stoned?

    Which could be good, Sandra added. It's all free love and fun with them, isn't it?, and I'll have a helping of both, so long as he's serving.

    Nothing's free, I wanted to tell her. Especially not

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