That was the day the hyena came for him, and never mind that there were no hyenas in the South of France, and especially not in Pont-Saint-Esprit—it was there and it came for him, begins T.C. Boyle's "Hyena," one of 13 characteristically creative tales. "Thirteen Days" is a comic account of a cruise gone horribly wrong, while in the title story, a woman sits down next to a man at a bar and claims she has ESP.