One pale star

An excerpt from something new....
(psst... a new novel perhaps)

I rode across the highway that cut through our town and down seventeenth street. Growing up on the Crescent there was no seventeenth street, just a lot of prairie and one lone tire business. As kids we'd run across the highway and go play on the stack of tires. The owner didn't seem to be around much, I'm not sure how he ever made money. A couple of times he'd chase us out of there, but then he just stopped caring. Where the tire shop used to be stood three brand new houses and the beginnings of another four. Two workers were banging away at the frame of one of the houses. Another guy hauled shingles in a wheelbarrow. I stopped on the road and watched them for awhile. It was getting dark already and I needed to zip my jacket up as the wind had picked up. Just yesterday the breeze had felt warm, but now there was an edge to it. I looked up expecting to see the first formations of geese heading south, but the sky was empty except for one pale star that hung over the horizon.