It was so beautiful for Lovin Child, up here in this little valley among the snow-topped mountains; so sheltered.

Yesterday's grind in that beehive of a department store seemed more remote than South Africa.

Unconsciously her first nervous pace slackened.

She found herself taking long breaths of this clean air, sweetened with the scent of growing things.

Why couldn't the world be happy, since it was so beautiful?
It made her think of those three weeks in Big Basin, and the never-forgettable wonder of their love--hers and Bud's.
She was crying with the pain and the beauty of it when she heard the first high, chirpy notes of a baby--her baby.