Dawn rises over the face of water and tall cities, lending scarlet to dreams. Anne Fraser AnneFraser5@msn.com http://www.Photoaspects.com/anne/index.html "Something in those summers made tense irrelevant, between the repeating years there was just enough space between skin and time to accommodate the next. Each summer I sat with my heels tucked under the store's wooden steps and looked out over the flat landscape. Before the drought years, there had been green as far as the eye could see. Some said there was nothing left now but the empty dry quiet and that uneasy feeling that bleeds into everything in the worst of times. But each day I would sit on those steps and wait for evening when the worst of the heat had rolled away. It was then that the ice chests were taken outside and the melting contents poured into the ground. It was then that you could catch the scent of promise -- the sweet earth rising. " Excerpted from "In the Worst of Times" -- a very short story.   Bio: Anne was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. She has moved around a little from Seattle to Canada to California and back to Seattle, Washington. Anne began writing seriously in early 2002. Her work has been published nationally and internationally. Anne has a degree in Law and Justice from Central Washington University and works as a legal assistant. In her spare time she draws a little, writes poetry, and has attempted a short story or two. She looks forward to spending more time with the pen as life allows.   E-zines A Little Poetry American Haiku Borders & Time Electric Acorn Gumball Poetry I.M.C. (Independent Mass Communication) Lingerings Megaera Moments (Haiku) Passage Through August Anthology PoetsWest Prairie Poetry Pulse PW Review The Muse Apprentice Guild Whistling Shade Wicked Alice   Print Journals Comrades PLINTH Cash Award won in an annual internet contest sponsored by a literary society in Iowa.