IN THE NAMESAKE STORY

An institution that has brought people together is now pushing them apart.

IN THE OTHER STORIES

A mother persistently refuses to turn against her self-absorbed son. A lonely man on borrowed time reconstructs his life, this time with new friends he arbitrarily chooses. A scar challenges a man to stay centered on what his young life taught him. An inseparable couple patiently await the rehabilitation of their careers, if only the world outside will leave them to this. One whispered remark deafens a young man to what he has been longing to hear. An ex-son-in-law finds peace in a terribly odd form of communication. And an invitation to a contrived fight offers a sticky lesson in the value of caution. A sneak visit to an infant changes a young boy for life. A wife and her husband tend to arrive at identical affirmations of their marriage, but disquietingly, each in their own time. A son comes to a practice convinced his father is not taking their upcoming gig seriously. And in each of two other stories, remorse distresses an individual who bore no fault. Important signals from others abound for a man but only if he'll pay attention. Two decades into a career obsessively dedicated to fairness, a hiatus in a strange place turns self-righteousness on its head. And a son troubled by his mother's frequent lapses of cognition discovers how to read her.