Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is about a man who is very well educated who lives in India and who gives tours to tourists. He believes that his learning of language has gone to waste as he not only gives tours but also is a physician's assistant in interpreting native language and doctors words.

Mr. and Mrs. Das are on vacation with their two children and have Mr. Kapasi as their tour guide mainly because he speaks English. Mrs. Das becomes fascinated with Mr. Kapasi because he interprets a language that few others can to a doctor who listens to natives with all sorts of maladies. Mr. Kapasi, in turn, has a crush on Mrs. Das. They end up talking alone together. Mrs. Das unburdens herself of a lifelong secret and Mr. Kapasi doesn't know how to respond. Their exchange is both humorous yet thought provoking. She believes that due to his profession as an interpreter of maladies that he would be able in some way to console her to help her with her problems. This author does a fantastic job of describing feelings through glances, thoughts, and images.

The 5:22 by George Harrar

'For more than a year Walter Mason and the woman with one ear nodded to each other at 5:22 pm, or thereabouts, when the Western Local pulled into Lincoln station. It is a story about routines and how they can quickly become both tedious and necessary for order. Walter follows his normal routine which one day suddenly spirals out of control. The woman with one ear is not there when he gets off the train, the train has a different conductor, and the train does not make a stop where he lives. On one last ride on the train Walter gets on and finds the train nearly full. 'As the train moved on, he sensed a person sitting down at the edge of his seat. When he looked over, he saw the woman with one ear. "I'm sorry to intrude," she said, "but the train is so full today."

"No, it's fine, there's plenty of room," he said, drawing himself closer to the window so she would not be frightened. Walter breathed the intoxicating scent of some delicate perfume. He felt the vinyl seat shift under him as she settled into her place.'

The Piano Tuner by Tim Gautreaux

Michelle Placervent lives alone in an ancient house in the deep South on an old plantation. "He knew that all she did was sit in a 150-year-old house and practice pop tunes on a moth-eaten George Steck upright." Claude is the local piano tuner whom she calls to tune up her piano again.

"'What problems you having, Michelle?' He put a tuning hammer onto a pin and struck a fork for A. His electronic tuner was being repaired a the factory, so he'd gone back to listening, setting temperament by ear."

"Why, none at all, she said, too brightly and breathlessly."

'He then tuned by octaves from the reference notes, and this took over an hour. Michelle sat there with her pale hands in her lap as though she had bought a ticket to watch.'

'The piano tuner was the kind of person who hated for anything to go to waste and thought the saddest thing in the world was a fine instrument that nobody ever touched, so it made him uneasy that someone who could play like this lived alone and depressed in an antique nightmare of a house ten miles from the nearest ear that knew what the hell her fingers were doing.'

Michelle feels obligated to stay put while Claude thinks that she ought to move and be closer to others and to be able to show off her talent. A couple of weeks later Claude gets another call from Michelle:

'Giving a good musician a fine tuning is always a risk, because when the first string starts to vibrate, he gets dissatisfied and calls up, as if one little note that's just a bit off ruins the whole song.'

The ending of this story is great.