Chapter 2
I try to stand. The world tilts. My legs are unsteady, like I’ve just stepped off a boat after a long trip at sea. The hill rolls slightly beneath me, the horizon bending in a way that makes my stomach feel loose. I put a hand out to steady myself. My vision tilts up and I pause.
“What happened to the sky?” The words crumble from my mouth before I can stop them. My back straightens, again steady. I shield my eyes and look up.The sky is still blue.
Mostly.
But the color feels thinner somehow, stretched across the dome above me like paint that’s been watered down just a little too much. It looks like a reflection of the sky off of an old window.
A group of college-age kids has joined me on the grassy knoll. They don’t notice the change above us. They talk, animated, their voices drifting upward in fragments—laughter, half-sentences, the ordinary sound of strangers enjoying an afternoon.
No one joins me in staring upward. No one reacts.
