"Show me a new world," Professor Robinson had said. (It is) An element of fiction, not easy to create within short story form, yet knowledge and awareness and practice can develop the skill. Or, we can spend a week in a world where daily routine is completely foreign such as the conference schedule imposed, and then slide back into our own within minutes when we walk through the door.
My home based world has changed a bit in my absence, some good things some bad, all surmountable problems that take care of themselves in time with a little help. Help from experience, help from caring, help from understanding that world.
As a writer, I can see that story needs a quick fix injected into a paragraph or two in the beginning in order to welcome the stranger (reader) into its world.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology