This story has been around in several different forms for more than 20 years. This version was created in 2012 for submission to The First Line, a quarterly journal in which each issue contains stories with the same first line. The first line for this particular quarter was, " A light snow was falling as Charlie Reardon left the diner and made his way down Madison Street." I took that and put it together with my old idea and created one of my favorite stories. I hope you like it.

For more information about The First Line click over to http://www.thefirstline.com/index.htm