An adolescent boy struggles with the loss of one friendship and the flowering of a new one. "The mouth of the basin had washed away so that the pool had emptied with the runoff from the storm, but the tree still stood, now taller than Elam, the center of a sandy bowl." "Elam's mouth dropped open in surprise. Irises had shot up, crowding the edges of the bowl, their green, spear-like leaves reaching toward the sun. And they were in full bloom, their...