Ten short stories depict a kaleidoscope of characters--maybe even someone you know. In The Lousy Adult, William J. Cobb reveals a world where love and respect collide with achievement and desire, a world where people often get what they want, yet must pay the price of alienation, remorse, and retribution in order to obtain it. In "The Sea Horse," a teenage boy defends a battered woman against her abusive husband while...