Joanne felt hope drain out of her eight hours into the traffic jam. Granted she was asleep the whole time, but the sight of the exact same tree with the lightning-burnt bark, which Joanne had stared at an equivalent of an entire workday ago, was panic-inducing....

“Is our baby going to be okay?” The tiny human being was almost lost under the monitors and cannulas fastened to her reddened skin with hypoallergenic adhesive tape. One tube went into the mouth, another into the nose. Was she going to be okay?...

On your first birthday away, I got you a plant incubator. I wrapped it in jungle-green paper and tied it twice, with an organic silk band the color of wild strawberries. I put it beneath our bed, a corner sticking out, pushing up the dust covers, for you to find when you returned....

I tried to lie still in my little sniper’s nest on the ruined tower. As I waited sportingly for Abdul to finish his prayers, the Blurring’s stock numbed my aching shoulder. With no mosques on Sunstrewn, Abdul was making do as he fell to his knees for the fourth and last rakat in prayer on the tumbling shell of an apartment block....

Sometimes I think that all God did to create our universe was to burp it out, then let it inflate like a balloon. In that first fraction of a second, the compressed matter of His Burp sprayed out its offspring in waves....

Fine resort. Great planet. Not too many visitors, though. The reason is simple: the locals are rather particular about the ecological state of their home. They dutifully protect species that many would argue should not be allowed to exist to begin with....