Good Neighbors

Deputy Colleen "CeeCee" Connor thinks she has seen it all, serving and protecting the people in her rural county in Washington state—until she flattens some thing with her squad car—some thing that looks like a miniature human being and groans like a creature in pain. As Connor races to town to get help for the being, she learns things are going haywire all over the county: It's raining cats, dogs, and salmon (literally) in Home Valley, Bigfoot is walking through town, and now three children have disappeared into a new cave on Fairy Hill. To make matters worse, the town and all its inhabitants are cut off from the rest of the world, threatening their survival. It's up to CeeCee Connor to save her town and all its residents, the human and unhuman. (short story)