Chasing Me Softly

(A short novelette). In a village where it is illegal for a woman to run, Chadel is a dangerous free spirit. By night she steels away from the crowded pavilions, the streets smothered in pipe- and cigar-smoke and other smells and oppressions of men, to breathe the fresh air and do that thing that makes her a criminal. She runs. It is a beautiful and dangerous game that she plays. At any moment, she could be caught â€" if they can catch her. Or she could run full-tilt into someone who slowly begins to redefine what it is she is running from. And what she could come to learn to run toward.