Lonely but proud, Annie has distanced herself from everyone, even her mother. then, amid highschool rumours of her supposed homosexuality, Annie is challenged by her guidance counsellor to confront her "problems" by writing about them. In an awkward attempt to make friends, she is drawn to a group of ragtag local hippies. One of them, Sweet William, is even more bereft than Annie, and not by choice. The 1960s may have jump-started a cultural revolution, but for many people the old prejudices are slow to let go. Still, perhaps "all you really need is love ..."
Rhonda Batchelor is the author of two collections of poetry, Bearings and Interpreting Silence. She has been anthologized in Windhorse Reader: Choice Poems of 1994, Because You Loved Being a Stranger: 55 Poems Celebrate Patrick Lane, and New Life in Dark Seas: Brick Books 25. She lives in Victoria, BC, and is the manager of The Hawthorne Bookshop. She is also the publisher of Reference West chapbooks.