This is a preview of the short story Shade, written 2008.
He moved silently, and when he shaded his eyes he was invisible. Still, ineffable unease guided people from his path, exposing his presence. Gliding coolly through the crowd, his confidence asserted that his comfortable equivalence would continue to reign. Another day would come, and he might speak a few revered words. During those few moments his aura was majestic. Without seeing, one could imagine a modestly tall, well-built young man with bangs falling across his eyes to conceal them, or so he thought, from others’ jealousy.
But one day, someone checked his path. The entire world shook and the harmony of the universe was disrupted as he was forced to stop and glare, a tactic that was far less powerful through his obstructive bangs. He managed barely to discern a female figure, hands on hips, with that just-what-do-you-think-you’re-doing expression that all males come to dread. Her figure could have told the time in sand, but this one’s lot was not salt. He waited.