LONELY PLACES, A Short Story by Francis Buzzell 

In the quaint, snow-clad town of Almont, where life's milestones are measured in marriages and births, Abbie Snover stands as an anomaly. Never married and bound to the ancestral home she's never left, Abbie's uneventful existence is marked only by the weekly rhythm of cookie-making and quiet solitude. But when an unexpected package arrives from far-off China, containing a mysterious plant and a whisper from a forgotten past, Abbie's world tilts. Could this simple gift unearth long-buried secrets and alter the course of her life forever? Journey into the heart of Almont with Abbie, where every snowfall buries old paths and sometimes reveals new ones. "Lonely Places" invites you to uncover the layers of a life spent waiting-and the late-coming hope that life can always take a new turn.