This week on selected shorts a fantastical look at government bureaucracy and the Ray Bradbury story that captured Neil Gaiman at age 7. I'm Meg Walitzer. Join me for an hour of mind-bending fiction.

You're listening to Selected Sh where our greatest actors transport us through the

magic of fiction one short story at a time. When I say shareholders meeting or family reunion, you probably think of wrote standard events that humans know really well.

But if we take those same human rituals and give the usual cast of characters a supernatural makeover, things might get

playful. There might be room for satire. And we might learn something entirely new about

not only these everyday gatherings gatherings but about ourselves too.

And for this show we found two perfect artists to help us hear things differently.

One is a contemporary voice on the fiction scene, the other a grand master who helped define it.

One applies a statistical model where you would not expect to find one.

The other offers a wild reimagining of the concept of homecoming.

If Margaret Atwood fused with the Brothers Grimm, one part homily to two parts gruesome

and a dash of number crunching was thrown into the mix, you might get a story as fantastical

and disconcerting as Daniel Laveries on the sudden increase in changeling stock, a report. Laverie is an author and editor whose books include texts from Jane Eyre, the Mary Spinster,

and something that may shock and discredit you.

This story was a selected shorts commission.

It is a satire that capitalizes on fables and fairy tales

on such models as Jonathan Swift's a modest proposal

and Robert Benchley's legendary treasurer's report. And in case you didn't have a and in

case you didn't have a fantasy-filled childhood,

a changeling is something the fairies leave in the crib

in place of your own child, whom they have stolen.

Our reader is Jin Ha, who appeared in Hamilton,

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