Destiny’s a tricky thing. Alternately unavoidable and completely in your own hands, depending on who you ask. And sometimes it’s both. The only constant seems to be that a whole lot of things are going to happen – good, bad and ugly – and you’re going to have to figure out how to handle them. Whether that’s through belief in a higher power or flipping the bird at a cold, unfeeling universe, whether it’s fighting or falling to your knees, destiny is, ultimately, all in how the individual handles it.

This month’s stories are all about facing that destiny, in one way or another. We start with J. David Bell’s “A Chimaera Story With Four Morals,” a tale about a father and son and a march toward the inevitable. Next are two tales about playing with the strange and unfortunate hands Fate dealt: “Literary Ops,” by K. Marvin Bruce, and “The Swell Foop,” by Mindela Ruby. After that, it’s “The Six,” by Ainslie Hogarth, about a massive turd wrenching one man’s life irrevocably. And, finally, we close with “The Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard,” by Kimberly Steele, a story about how maybe destiny isn’t quite so destined after all.

The online version of Issue Twenty-One is here, and the .pdf can be downloaded here. Read it like you don’t have a choice.