Jackson Albright Hilton, an "escapee" from an oppressive family and a depressive college experience, returned on a near-whim to a small Michigan lake town after eleven years of meandering. He comes under the eaves of a "great old house" where four old women are making a December life together. Jack stumbles over the voids and demanding penetrations of his early life, and is provoked through daily and special occurrences in his exceptional setting to confront his own deep hunger to "craft a life", find belonging, and life from "seeds" sowed into his early life. This intimate tale of three-generational interaction covers fifteen months and celebrates perseverance amidst lostness, integrity in spite of phoniness, the redeeming values of human acceptance and warmth, and the significant roles played by average but unique "others". Through real-life encounters and in unexpected ways the central person is moved to live "above assumptions, beyond expectations." ************ E.A. Laman: I now live in Western Michigan. This close-to-life story (and others stemming from it) effervesced from my work among people in two professions. These pages are my fascinated effort to paint with words what I have seen flooding into and flowing out of real lives in our scrambled world.