Two chefs from different backgrounds find friendship while competing against each other on a cooking show. Members of a scientific exploration team discover their presence on a barren planet is accelerating biological evolution there with unpredictable consequences. A young couple's dark tourism of New Orleans leads them to a new understanding of magic. Two nurses in a futuristic hospital uncover a conspiracy among hospital administration to replace them with AI systems. A team of sleep researchers undertake edge studies of lucid dreaming. A vacationing couple confront unresolved issues in their marriage. A daughter who is losing her elderly mother to dementia faces dilemmas with AI-assisted end of life care. The stories in this collection span a range of genres including science fiction, young adult fantasy, and family fiction/domestic realism, in language that is frequently vividly luminous and charged with emotion.