Mildred's Garden

*Winner of the West Virginia Writer's Competition*

A gentle musician (Sam) has been noticing a fan's (Mildred's) Instagram and feeling the pull. He's hopelessly attracted when he sees her in a field of poppies or with sunflowers or talking about her new bed and breakfast business in West Virginia. Before he knows it, he's calling her Moonflower and wondering whether she'll let him into her life beyond the screen.

What he doesn't know, at first, is that they share a part-Vietnamese heritage—and that Mildred is about to take a refugee family into her life. At the same time, his own beginnings as an adopted son are missing important details he didn't think he'd ever care about, until a long lost cousin comes onto the scene. Sam also doesn't know that Mildred's got a secret that's been keeping her from any new relationships for 15 years.

In a whirlwind get-to-know-you—with stops and starts, plus poetry and a few surprises—the alluring promise of beginning again arises for Sam, Mildred, and others who end up in their orbit.

**One of Sam's Poems to Mildred...*

without you, I am
thin as the wings
of a Luna, moonlit,
translucent

your gaze
I remember

I want to touch
your skin—
lend my powdery film
to your luminous
fingers