Good Neighbors and Other Strangers

In the corner gas station, the local saloon, on the down-east farm, in the settings of EVERYDAY--there appear UNEXPECTEDLY THE ALIEN, THE WEIRD, THE MYSTERIOUSThe title story tells of one tearful stray from a herd of alien livestock which crushes most of Manhattan and causes apologetic herders to make amends. There is a shivery novelette about the abduction of a country wife by a hairy beast, and the story of a pickup truck full of mythical characters asking directions to Olympus. Then there are the ten-legged blue bugs from inner--or outer--space that can give you a dream--or nightmare; the shadow-monkeys who have the absurd habit of following along and changing by what you think; the tiny angel that hatches from an egg; and the "wrens" that hatch from Grampa's beard the summer he was 106.