The Circle

A novella.

A woman answers a frantic knock at her door. A loin-clothed kid runs in and begins defecating in her bathroom. But instead of a mess, the kid fills the toilet with diamonds. When her husband arrives home, the kid is trapped in the garage, now dropping all kinds of precious stones from his ass. And just when the couple think they'll be rich, the kid begins to spew an endless army of black beetles...

Meanwhile a few blocks away, Frank and his friends muster the nerve to visit the messy backyard of a reputed local witch, intending to ask favors from a sacred shrine they've heard is hidden among the trash...

And finally Gil Marotta, alerted by one of the kids about what just happened at the shrine, decides to investigate only to discover the "witch" is all too real and a petition the neighborhood had signed against her may be the cause of the growing communal chaos.