Flash fiction, when done well, is the love child of poetry and fiction. It's about the potency and power of language merging with the world-opening narratives of good storytelling. It's about not wasting a single word (nod to Strunk and White). That is, it's about potency and word economy IF the author knows what he's doing. Len Kuntz does. He's a master of all things flash. He proves this again and again in the 80+ stories in I'm Not Supposed to Be Here and Neither Are You. The stories examine relationships, coming of age stories, the way our past-times or fashion choices define us, the way our lives can be forever changed with a single exchange. Len Kuntz captures the moment. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the entire collection, stand-outs for me were the namesake story, "Mermaid," "Wicked Water," and "You."