Son of a famous photographer, Aaron Rhyder leads a failed life in the shadows, until a sudden strange fogging in his sight sends him to Dr. Alisa Grey, who lovingly injects visions into his eye with a platinum needle. A classic in the medicine of vision, in the tradition of Kafka and Poe. A procedural romance.

"jolting...a swift quirky tale" Publishers Weekly

"insight and entertainment" Linda Vader, ASORN

Chapter One

Palm leaves clapping in the wind, and rising cloud horizons didn't deter the big women in little bathing suits, the lean surfers competing for the ice-blue waves, or the mattress people sleeping on the steep beach, dreaming of sushi soaked in garlic soup. Nearby at the golf resort, the 80-year-olds doing 80 laps, in chill water below the new green hills, defined their own time, with flowers falling everywhere, and parties of birds surprising. At the naval base, a glider-winged spy plane lifted off and soared toward the stratosphere, extending its sensors, to test the life support of earth below. My calves cramping, I scattered the reef fish. My ex-wife chased our son home, to an address I wasn't allowed to learn.

I cleaned my glasses. They weren't dirty. The smudges were in my eyes. Ahead, the wind tore the surf apart, clouding the road edge. Something was wrong I wasn't ready for. I drove on, toward the north star.

I woke to black branches, floating in my vision of the satin yellow pillow. The motel coffee didn't clear them. I could manage though. I'd have to manage. The floaters seemed like a birthmark breaking up, unable to. They might keep me company forever now. Still I kept to my search, to buy a cliff side cabin of my own....

© 1996, 2005, 2010 Jon D'Arc

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