My Life on Earth and Elsewhere

Sensing she's about to get bad news, Darcy, sixteen, feels herself--or her spirit, to be more exact--rise weightless, out of her body, lifting off the seat of the patio chair. How can this be happening? Her light-bodied airy self hovers high in a backyard tree.

She is not alone! A beautiful teenage boy, shy as a deer, stands in the branches nearby. He sees her and vanishes--as she is pulled back into her body, again tight-packed in her skin.

Her father is talking. Her parents are separating. ...