Catherine writes:

The narrator, Inez, is a young girl living in California in the late 60s to 70s. Her parents are divorced and she has an older half-brother, Whitman, by her father's first marriage. The section of the book from which this paragraph is taken takes place in 1972 and Inez is in the seventh grade, so i guess that would make her about 12, to Whitman's 16 or so. Inezand Whitman are with Inez's best friend, Robyn, called Robbie.

"Whitman brought something exciting into our lives - and made us feel, for a time anyway, like we were living in HippieWorld with him. One summer night, after he and Robbie and I had gone swimming up the street, at Christa Nixon's house, we came back to Abuelita's and turned off all the lights in the house. Whitman lit some incense. Then he brought my little portable stereo into the living room, put a Joni Mitchell album on the turntable, and made us listen to the songs in the dark."

(Contributed by Catherine McKay)