“Another bright flash.”
“Probably just a surge–they come all the time these days.”
“You ever notice how the sand feels differently?”

She walks out to bass drums.

“You think they can tell?”
“If she’s everything they need?”

In spring, the sun sets across the leaves.

The satellites record their deeds.

“We’ve got a couple choices, I think.”
“How can you ever pretend to believe in what they’d need?”
“Remember, when the days went easy? It wasn’t peace. But we did our best to make them see.”

A couple kids can’t matter in the scheme of things.

He picks up the phone.

“We’re brothers, remember? We’ve got each other’s back…”

An empty street.

“This is the tool you’ll need–strip the marked leads. Are you listening?”
“I just want her to be okay.”
“This is okay. What you want is change. Which is fine. It’s probably what Annie wants, anyway.”

“Jump in the truck. It’s elegant.”
“Can it make it back?”
“Does it matter?”
“Wreckers?”
“How many did she say?”

She said, “They’re it. You. You can’t let what you don’t know really happened make what you know is bad happen just because they tell you to.”