The road back does not always lead to the original location. Sometimes it leads to a new place-often a better one. On occasion, finding the way back is unsuccessful, and the trip ends badly. But new purpose is often the outcome of a difficult journey. The stories in this volume explore life's passages: smooth and rocky, exiting and funny, poignant and sad. The characters wrestle with scars from the battlefield in Afghanistan, the suicide of a child, the rape of a sister, the kidnapping of a little girl. Comedy is the theme of several selections. Love, grief, anger and humor live in the characters. In the end, hope and optimism usually prevail. In this short story collection, Jim Collins departs from the thriller genre of his two earlier novels and gives us a compelling collection of literary fiction. We find characters that carry us along with them on their crossings. Collins lives and writes fiction in the Cape Fear region of southeastern North Carolina.