Constellations: Fiction and non-fiction. (Original writing)

The arrival of a neighbor's son to help with the haying in "Harvest" compels a farmer's wife to confront the loss of her sons. "Ordinary Magic" is necessary to repair a familial relationship when a mother disapproves of her daughter's decision not to have children. The pregnancy of a single, overweight college freshman encourages her personal evolution in "Lotus Flower" after she gains the support of her prenatal yoga instructor. "This Country" unites a hitch-hiking teenager escaping from an abusive lover with a man-hating woman who holds her at gunpoint. A personal essay, "The Galloping Horse" explores the consequences of single parenthood. Though all the characters, fictional or real, are very much alone, the various "constellations" in which they find themselves sometimes offer--like the imperfect family in the title story--to make "isolation ... bearable by familiar voices in the dark.".