Brief Encounters with Solitary Souls

Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors—Eugene O’Neill

At a Paris Café. In early 70s Paris, a naive and eager young man chooses not to go with his buddies on a trip around the country on his summer vacation. He goes it alone in Paris.

The Gypsy. A boy recently uprooted to Paris by his parents’ divorce learns some life lessons from an old gypsy he watches through a third-floor apartment window.

The Sum of a Young Life. Finding a young woman’s journal at a Berkeley coffeehouse upsets an urbane but blasé young man’s precise routine.

In a Few Fast Heartbeats. After her husband's heart surgery, a middle-aged wife and mother is taking him home, back to the old comforting routine. But her life changes in the blink of an eye.

Fragrant Green Mangoes. A young woman loses her beloved Grandma after her most recent visit. In her grief, she finds the language of love, not in roses, but in fragrant green mangoes.