title: Sassafras Tales: Firey Lizard Cove
author: Kate Brown
description: I am Kate Murray Brown. I live in a place called Deep Woods in Tennessee, where the inspiration of nature fills my imagination with the stories in Sassafras Tales. I would love to see your pictures. Email me. sassafrastales.com or kmurrayb@cafes.net
zlib_text: THE LUST LIZARD OF MELANCHOLY COVE
  
  CHRISTOPHER  
  MOORE
  
  
  
  
  
  Prologue
  
    
  
  September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap.
  Soft autumn light filters through the trees, the tourists go back to Los
  Angeles and San Francisco, and Pine Cove's five thousand residents wake up to
  discover that they can once again find a parking place, get a table in a
  restaurant, and walk the beaches without being conked by an errant Frisbee.
  
  September is a promise. Rain will come at last and turn the golden pastures
  around Pine Cove green, the tall Monterey pines that cover the hills will stop
  dropping their needles, the forests of Big Stir will stop burning, the grim
  smile developed over the summer by the waitresses and clerks will bloom into
  something resembling real human expression, children will return to school and
  the joy of old friends, drugs, and weapons that they missed over the summer,
  and everyone, at last, will get some rest.
  
  Come September, Theophilus Crowe, the t