title: I Fell from Earth and Slipped Through the Cracks and Other Stories
author: Robert Mundy
description: A Milwaukee businessman repays a long-owed debt of gratitude in true Irish fashion. A baby left behind when Saigon fell in 1975 joins-and transforms-his family in the US nearly four decades later. A dead wife takes a look at what her merry widower is up to while she's gone. In these often funny and always engaging stories, Robert Mundy takes readers into the minds and hearts of a wide cast of characters, faithfully creating their voices and conveying the surprising truths and significance of their lives. -Mary Helen Stefaniak, author of "The Turk and My Mother" and "The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia" "I Fell from Earth..." by Robert Mundy is a fine, wide-ranging collection of short narratives, particularly for readers fascinated by the complexities of sex and friendship. Though the characters include an abandoned son of Vietnam, an obsessed gambler seeking revenge for a con, and a woman who loves to get men hooked on meth, the bulk of the stories deal with tortured people negotiating the ins and outs of dating, marriage, and long-term relationships. In that regard, these are tales that will have readers casting a rueful eye on their own experiences, and coming away a bit wiser. Highly recommended. -Charles Kelly, former reporter for The Arizona Republic and author of "Pay Here" (Point Blank Press) and "Grace Humiston and the Vanishing," the latter book a semifinalist for the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
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  Wherever We Are
  
  
  
  
  
  Evie Taylor
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  1  
  The day they fell from the sky
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The day they fell from the sky was like any other. I was doing what I did
  everyday during the afternoon; cycling through the winding woods towards the
  North hill. That day was warmer than usual and so I found myself dismounting
  and leaning forwards onto the red handlebars, pushing the bike slowly up the
  steep path.
  
  
  I shouldn’t have brought a coat with me, I thought, as I could feel a sticky
  heat beginning to cover my upper back. I ended up unzipping the fluffy fleece
  and letting the two long halves swing around me, one side knocking against the
  bike, making a small clinking chime every time the metal from the zip collided
  with the metal from the bike frame.
  
  
  My legs burned often in pain but I always felt safer going up the hill rather
  than down it. Every time I sped hurtling towards the bottom, tyres hittin