Hannah loves her friend Isabel. Isabel doesn't criticize. She's never in a hurry. And—unlike other grownups and some bigger kids—she doesn't tell Hannah what to do. But the day comes when Hannah begins to realize that Isabel is different. On Isabel's birthday, everyone on Gold Street recognizes that she is the neighborhood's real treasure.

Lee Byrd is the author of the award-winning collection of short stories, My Sister Disappears (SMU Press, 1993), and co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press. She likes to spend her spare time with the children of the El Paso neighborhood where she and her family have made their home for the last 25 years.