A Short Story by Michael F. Nyiri Originally created for WhenWordsCollide on Xanga: March 25, 2011 She sat forward with a jolt. Birds in the distance warbled in song, as if they were chirping for the first time. Her eyesight, failing for decades, seemed to be sharper. She looked straight ahead and focused on the lace curtains blowing almost wistfully in the warm summer breeze. She could make out the stitching. The curtain on the left was slightly yellowed. Suddenly Phyllis wa

This article originally appeared in the online magazine "The Palos Verdes Pulse" on September 27, 2023. I recreated it here on Allthingsmike's Whenwordscollide blog but never published it till now, June 8, 2026. The Wayfarers Chapel, shown in the section "Abalone Cove/Portuguese Point" was dismantled in July 2024 because of land movement on the peninsula. There are plans to reconstruct it in another area. Although I don't live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, I have always call