Hi, this is Meg Wallitzer. I love hosting selected shorts. It's so wonderful to bring great stories

read by brilliant performers into your home. What a gift to be able to transport you with beautiful

words to different times and places, even for a little while. There's something magical about

the communal experience of selected shorts. A whole new world comes alive between the storyteller

and the audience. And for a little while, we're all together, going on a journey your ears can

take you on that your eyes can't. So I know why I love it. You have your own reasons no doubt.

These days it feels like our brains are like internet browsers with too many tabs open.

It's hard to focus. If you're listening, it means you relish the chance to slow things down

and be in the moment. To hear one voice telling one story that's bound to make you laugh or cry

or both. Whatever keeps you coming back to shorts, I hope you'll help us keep the show healthy

and thriving with a tax deductible donation. So please visit selected shorts.org and make a donation

today. And thank you.

On this selected shorts, the Martian Settle Canada, an unsettling mother daughter story,

and a medieval quest relocated to the suburbs. Join me for stories by Margaret Atwood and Neil

Gaiman about finding the unexpected in life's journeys and destinations.

I'm Meg Wallitzer and you're listening to selected shorts where our greatest actors

transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.

Quests and travel are frequent themes in life and in writing. How far do we need to go to find

what we want? Whether that's something be an ephemeral pleasure, a lasting relationship,

or a symbolic object. All three of these are featured in the stories on this program.

In one, extraterrestrials invade, but their intentions are benign and they wind up as changed

as the world they enter. In another, a discarded daughter seeks love, and in the third, a night

...