The Mermaids & Other Stories — William Buck

An inquisitive girl on the threshold of adulthood discovers a figurine that could change her life, a detective investigating the murder of a software billionaire must disentangle the threads of a heinous crime and sloppy police work, a young farmer in the Mexican desert experiences a visionary choice, a waitress encounters an unfamiliar stranger who causes disturbing sensations, a writer finds that everything he depends upon is disappearing, and a retiring combat pilot must decide between his military obligations and the prospect of alien life. The characters in these half a dozen stories inhabit a landscape of transformation where the grounded becomes vertiginous, the mundane becomes mysterious, and the heart takes flight toward promises of fulfillment.