Chapter 3
Marty and Felicia went out on the back lawn.
They sat in chairs they carried down from the patio.
The power was out all over the city now, and the stars were very bright.
Brighter than Marty had ever seen them since he was a boy growing up in Nebraska.
Back then he’d had a small telescope and conned the universe from his attic window.
“There’s Aquila,” he said. “The Eagle. There’s Cygnus, the Swan. See it?”
“Yes. And there’s the North Sta—” She stopped. “Marty? Did you see…”
“Yes,” he said. “It just went out. And there goes Mars. Goodbye, Red Planet.”
“Marty, I’m scared.”
Was Gus Wilfong looking up at the sky tonight? Andrea, the woman who’d been on the Neighborhood Watch Committee with Felicia? Samuel Yarbrough, the undertaker? What about the little girl in the red shorts? Star light, star bright, last stars I see tonight.
Marty took her hand. “I am, too.”