A woman dates a man who doesn't really have time for her. Then she breaks up with him and is comforted by her mother.

The unspoken things between friends.

A man joins a cult and then ultimately reconnects with his father.

" When I was four, my mother tried to teach me to swim. She carried me out into a lake, but when she put me in the water I sank. I ended up feeling the bottom with my feet. The water was deep. I saw a bunch of small black dots moving toward me. Tadpoles. I was greedy. I thought I could have them all, and I grabbed and grabbed, but I had nothing to put them in"

A young woman backpacks in China, has a casual relationship with another backpacker she meets, and then, after reading his journal, realizes that he holds menace.

A young man is fired from his job at a university coffee shop. Small businesses, franchises, lies and entitlements.

The bullied -- a korean kid who loves food -- becomes a bully. A story about the choices we make as kids. Throwing stars.

A couple reunite with a friend / roommate in Turkey

The outline of an ill fated family.

A writer chooses a therapist and worries about her reading his work; abut him reading hers; they make a pact. His general anxieties give way to a real health emergency and he undergoes open heart surgery. Therapy imitates life imitates therapy.

Wow. Intense. A 23 year veteran of the US Navy, Mackin served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of his stories feature animals. In this one, a man undergoes training in preparation for another tour of duty; he re-lives war trauma as he is also dealing with his wife reliving her own terror at the hands of her father.