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. ( )

Typical...enjoyable....de Lint. ( )