Title: Speed dreaming
Description: Despite the coyote sighting in the park, Meg decides not to cancel her three-year-old son's birthday party. Instead, she tells her increasingly distant husband, Dax, "Bring your gun." So off they go to the park with a life-sized pinata, a gluten-free cake, and a gym bag concealing the weapon. It seems the other families aren't so brave-only one other family attends the party, and they seem blithely unaware of the risk. Though Meg works to keep the atmosphere light, her anxiety continues to grow. The spectral presence of the coyote, the rambunctious children, and-of course-the gun combine to suggest both lingering threat and the joy in innocent oblivion.
Subjects: American Short stories