But Miranda’s grandmother and her neighbor – Mrs. Henchel who was menacing and haughty – had won a small court battle, and so when the rest of the houses were torn down by the golf-course’s construction company, these two remained, side-by-side – like a pair of tough birds.

Miranda had been woken up by the first golf ball clunking against the roof. (Golfers tend to be morning people. They rise and shine early.) The pug-dog, Morgie, was already up, padding around through his morning routine, which included waiting for some buttery toast edges. Miranda obliged – making toast and nibbling prunes – her grandmother was a firm believer in prunes. Now she was standing in the livingroom where her grandmother was sleeping on the recliner. Her grandmother always slept on the recliner – her porkish pink toes propped in the air, her head tilted back. Miranda was listening to her grandmother snore – like toy train: puff, puff, whistle, puff, puff, whistle. Miranda had only been living here for three days, and so far, she’d simply sat in the livingroom waiting for her grandmother to wake up each morning.

But this morning, Morgie was scratching at the front door, growling a little, in fact, and so Miranda put on his leash and stepped out into the bright sun. The golfers were already slicking away with their shiny clubs. A tubby man in striped pants was cursing in the sand pit. Morgie was still growling and pulling on the leash. Miranda let him. She looked skyward. She was wondering what her future would hold. What would it be like to live here with her grandmother? Would she ever make friends? (Kids rarely golf.) And then she saw a puff of cloud. It wasn’t a huge puff, but it had detail to it – a round bit of nose, two soft dents for eyes, a sad mouth – frowning at its edges. It was a cloud that looked like Miranda, in fact. A cloud shaped just like her own head, with her own face on it.

There was rattling in the bushes, a hiss, Morgie was yapping wildly, but Miranda was fixed on the cloud. And that’s when Morgie slipped from his leash and bolted after Mrs. Henchel’s cat and the battle began.