Before the November that changed everything

A free short-story prequel to The November Stranger, set seven years before the novel begins.

A week after her mother Katherine’s funeral, Nora Sayers is finding out how much her mother quietly took care of. The gate needs fixing, the mortgage needs paying, and her painting will have to wait.

Her grandmother Pearl is grieving a daughter while trying to help her granddaughter. Between them are meals carried over, memories of Katherine, and the occasional laugh neither of them expected. Life keeps asking for ordinary things, even when nothing feels ordinary anymore.

As the first November without her mother approaches, Nora prepares to carry on the family’s offering at the crossroads. That night, a simple kindness brings her to a choice she hasn’t prepared for.