These two short stories depict the relationship of an older couple through their love, miscommunications, hardships, and separation. Confessions of a Sea Nettle explores magic realism and futuristic opportunities, inspired by a trip to the aquarium at the Cal Academy of Sciences. The Legasovs is set in Moscow, Russia in the 1890s, inspired by the short stories of Anton Chekhov, and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.