"Unaccustomed to grace" by Lesley Bannantyne (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022)

Stories from Shooter, etc including various prize-winning pieces. Quite a few missing or parentless children. Some stories have a prelude paragraph.

• Corpse Walks Into a Bar - A corpse walks into an empty bar, asking the barman Thomas to bury him. Thomas's sister Patty died 2 years before when her partner Ray, Thomas's best friend, drove drunk. Ray survived. On the way to a graveyard Thomas asks the corpse about dying, whether he sees other dead people. After burying the corpse he feels better. It's 6am.
• Underlake - Nan, 38, divorced, has a lakeside cottage. Mercy, a girl who's swum across the lake, knocks, asks to use the phone. She has bruises. Nan gives her a lift home. The girl leaves her number. Nan phones. The girl wants a lift early in the morning to a bus-station. Nan gives her a lift. Mercy and a boy get on a bus. Nan feels she'd better explain things to the father, a widower. She nearly runs him over trying to protect a dog he's abusing. She unchains the dog. Later she visits him in hospital. A cracked rib. She leaves her number.
• Gravity - Dee (her PoV) is a nurse. Her husband died of a heart-attack 3 years before, aged 48. She has a son she barely sees. She keeps herself to herself. Her only friend is Jeanette, divorced, with a high-school. They work at an ER ward. George in room 103 is being kept alive, maybe against his wishes. It's Dee's birthday. She's invited Jeanette for a meal without telling her why but at the last moment Jeanette turns her down. Dee knows she's having a date with a married doctor. Next day when the alarm in 103 goes off, Dee suggests to Jeanette that they delay responding - it's all for the best. They find George dead. I presume Dee hopes that their little secret will bond Jeanette and her closer. On her drive home, Dee pops into a Nail Salon on a whim.
• The Study and Practice of Astral Projection - The story is the title of a book that Cassie, 16, finds. She practises. When she finds she's pregnant her friend Gail tells her how to get an abortion. At the last moment she bottles out. She tells her mother. She's taken to her aunt's distant farm to have the child and get it adopted. Her mother says that the aunt sees the ghost of her daughter who died at 10. Her aunt has a 16+ son too. Cassie likes being looked at by the son - he's older and has known tragedy. They have regular sex. As the baby's born she has an out-of-the-body experience. Months later, at home, she learns that the son (who she'd hoped to be with long-term) has a local sweet-heart. At the end Gail and her run off together.
• Waiting for Ivy - Marianne's 29-week stillborn was called Ivy. She and husband Tim wait at the latest of several events where 2 angels appear with a baby to return to the parents. This time it's not Ivy. While Tim goes back to the car Marianne is led down an alley by a strange man (an angel?) to a room of babies. The man suggests that she should let go, that she should try to love many people, not just one or two. The babies and the man disappear. Back at the car she tells Tim that they needn't attend the next event.
• The Child That Went - 2 PoVs - Emily and Roberto. Emily (retired lecturer) returns each year to the beach where her 3-year-old son Peter was abducted. She tells her story to 26 year-old cafe owner Roberto, whose mother has died. Emily thinks she sees Peter and arranges a meeting in the cafe. He kisses her, getting the wrong idea. He's not Peter. She feels silly. The weakest piece so far.
• Martin Is Missing - Meredith had returned to her father to nurse him in his last days. Now she's bagging his stuff up for charity and plans to sell the house. The neighbour's cat Martin is missing. She gets a phone call. It's the child she gave away for adoption. Karen, 22, is a vet helper. She visits, asking why she'd been given away. Meredith's father in his last days had asked the same question. After that Karen phones sometimes, still angry. Meredith sees a cat being run over, calls Meredith who saves it. It's the lost cat. Meredith decides not to sell the house but to get to know the neighbours.
• On Tuesday I Will Kill Him - the main character's grandson was killed by a boy who's being let out on Tuesday. She buys a gun, practises, and is in position when the murderer is released, but relatives get in the way. Not much of a story.
• Summerland - Christopher (his 1st person PoV) and James break into a house. They look for bottles, find a gun. Christopher imagines he's in a computer game. He also recalls his late grandmother telling him to be good. When James leaves the house with the gun, heading towards the place where the girl Christopher fancies is, he calls the police.
• The Patron Saint of Bachelors and Toothaches - Sections alternate between Suzanne's PoV (teen tarot-reader, wants to find the right man) and Jack's (28 - doing community service in a Zoo). She's involved in a protest at the zoo. He tracks her down after to get his medallion back. He's the one.
• The Boy in the Boat - Denny, 11, has been newly fostered out to an old couple - his 5th fostering. The neighbour offers him a cat. He sneaks off in the night and finds a travelling fair. A 16 y.o. girl there claims to know him from a previous home. She says he can see a tiger up close for $40. He steal the money from the house, sees the tiger. We're told it's not a fairy tale - If this was a fairy tale, though, this is when the tiger would speak: I don’t hate this place. The trainer’s in love with me. I like performing. Mostly, I’ve kind of settled in. They don’t expect much. He gets scratched by it, runs and hides in one of the rides - a boat. When he creeps out, his foster mother finds him and lovingly takes him home. There's a curfew. "The grandmother spoke more quietly than Denny had ever heard her. There is a boy who made a bomb that killed a little boy exactly your age and hurt hundreds of innocent people. He hid in a boat, right here, in our town. But the police caught him. Everything’s alright now.". The neighbours on either side of the road clap as the 2 of them walk home. He's happy. I'm puzzled by the plot, interested by the details.
• Sunbathing in Russia - After knowing each other for a year in the States, American Sandy goes with Alec to fix up the family farm in Russia, hoping to sell it. One night a meteor explodes overhead. Its fragments are valuable, but it causes an accident and she loses 4 fingers. Their relationship becomes strained. Is he having an affair? She shoots a prowling wolf (who symbolises Alec?!). They go to a karaoke where a singing oaf pulls her on stage. She feels he understands her.
• Ugly - a girl who thinks she's ugly starts at high school and is teased. She gets an evening job at a Halloween Mansion. She hears a little boy in distress, realises it's her little brother and comforts him. Her colleagues are impressed by her compassion and invite her to a cool party where she enjoys herself. No.
• OMG Winn Handler Moved Next Door! - Peg and John (his first-person PoV) become friendly with the 80 y.o celeb next door. He used to help people - even do the odd miracle. They realise he has Alzheimer's. Their 3 y.o. son Miles is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Protesters and people coming for help crowd outside Winn's house. John asks Winn for help with Miles. Winn doesn't know who John is. John encourages a protester to throw a fire-bomb. The house burns down. Winn is saved. Later, the house rebuilt, John decides that miracles can be profane - Miles is still alive

Quite a broad spectrum of styles. Something to like (or learn from) in most of the stories. "Underlake" is maybe my favourite. "Gravity" is next. "Waiting for Ivy" is based on a striking idea though it feels like a missing opportunity. The paragraph/line-breaks are strange sometimes, and "neigher" on p.155 looks like a typo.