I heard Pal in my head: "Word of a good deed travels far. Word of a bad deed even farther." And, apparently, even travels off into the future. Years ahead, still remembered with fascination. Like how my father used to slow down the car back in Illinois when we'd get near the former home of the guy who left his wife and baby to run off with the nun who taught him in ninth grade. It still transÞxed us.... Now I was living in one of those kinds of houses, a destination point for those continuing to hand Lucy's story down through the generations. Vehicles braking as they approached the cement letters spelling out PANEK. Drivers narrating: "Right there -- that was the home of a crazy girl...." When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing Uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one Þnal season and then close down his beloved Massachusetts farm, her twenty-two years away from the vacation spot of her youth seem an unbridgeable gap. But she is pulled by forces stronger than her memories to try to piece together the events of that last childhood summer -- when a dark mystery and chilling rumors swirled about her former friend, Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy...and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy's strange and sudden vanishing -- and make peace with her Þrst love, Frankie. Now, the future of Pal's six ponies, who pace the ring Þve times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn's own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago and comes to terms with the life she has made for herself.

Suzanne Strempek Shea received the 2000 New England Book Award for Fiction in recognition of her contribution to the literature of the New England region. A former reporter for the SpringÞeld (MA) Union-News and the Providence (RI) Journal, she is the national bestselling author of the highly acclaimed novels Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, and Lily of the Valley. A freelance writer, her work has appeared in national publications, and was included in the 2000 edition of The Best American Short Stories. She also was featured in the 1998 PBS documentary The Polish Americans. Suzanne lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, Tommy, a columnist for the Union-News.