The Big Book of Science Fiction — Susan Hart

The Pied Piper of Spring - A galactic tinkerer is called to a small settlement to take care of the rat population. Two Idiots From Earth - A government official on a planet currently at war with earth, finds two supposed spies at a bar and suspects they are Terran agents. Raymond The Automatic House - A man, a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world, stumbles across an automatic house tucked deep into the woods. The Fate Of Humanity Rests In Her Hands: A scientist and his assistant visit a formerly shuttered and remote temporal research station in Alaska, they learn the true purpose of their visit. Radiation Can Really Mess Things Up: A classic Sci-Fi story about what happens when you aren't monitoring the site of a nuclear disaster like Chernobyl, quite closely enough. Notes From Heaven is an innovative and romantic thriller novella set in the near future. Duplicity - A story set in the near future about a female police detective investigating a crime. The Brand New & Instant Pop-Up Mall. A large mall springs up seemingly overnight in place of an apple orchard. The Refugee - A cowboy finds a downed balloon, he thinks, and is shocked when the inhabitant emerges and starts to yell at him in a strange language. Rio Temporal - Spring arrives at Amarillo Falls, a town nested somewhere in the future, and with it a restaurant owner encounters a mysterious young boy who he is loathe to tell his wife about because she desperately wants children.