TRAJECTORIES

Ethan Swann was sure he could learn how to kill as well as his trophy hunting father and finally gain his love and respect. When a black bear wanders from the woods into his back yard he takes his father’s hunting rifle, certain its massive head will be another trophy his father will proudly mount. Nervously, he fires. His aim is off, merely scaring the bear back into the woods. But the bullet streaks through the nearby community, its supersonic path intersecting the life trajectories of.. ..single mom Martina who abuses and impris- ons her 8 year old son, Ryan, so she can live a wild life. ...Lane, who watches his bedridden wife of 60 years breathe her last, and on their park bench, toasts her memory with a glass of wine mixed with 8 mg of fentanyl. ...loan shark muscle Santee who, while in juvie detention, discovers his gift of taming battle-scarred fighting dogs scheduled for euthanasia. ...wife beater Brad who is taught a violent les- son by Suzy Shock, Bad Bunny and La Fistadora, masked women wrestlers, part of a Mexican wrestling tradition that derived from Aztec performances of ritual combat. ...road-raged off-duty cop Kasten, on a girlfriend breakup phone call at a green traffic light who smashes the headlight of the impatient horn-honker behind him. ...Carly, the daughter of a Vietnam POW whose recovered skull fragment is the only piece of her father returned to her, the tale of his torture a bond in common with her Vietnamese manicurist lover, Cam. ...gang-raped survivor Kaneesha who finds peace as a community gardener, her faith in humanity refreshed by a precocious 6 1⁄2 year old imp. It misses, by millimeters, all... ... except one.