The following six-sentence blog post is excerpted from my novel, The Reluctant Canary Sings. It’s posted in response to the GirlieOnTheEdge weekly challenge.

Sometimes that one item is your only connection to your identity.

In my family, Ollie’s watch lacked a crystal because she couldn’t see.

A storm flashed across Cleveland as Mom and I talked about Dad’s watch, and why he was so darned attached to it when he could pawn it to buy food.

“The sisters gave it to him when he left the orphanage—said they found it in the box with him. An apple box on the steps. He says that watch is the only proof he has that he came from real people. Otherwise, he says, he’d have to think he hatched out of a dragon’s egg.”

The thunder, when it came, was a low, guttering growl, rolling away like a dragon seeking Its egg.