every one of them still up there but erased by the light of day.

What were the odds of any contact ending well? All human history answered that one. That’s why the universe is silent, Dad. Everyone’s hiding. All the smart ones, anyway.

The world had become something no schoolchild should be allowed to discover.

In this place, with such a species, trapped in such technologies, even a simple head count grew impossible. Only pure bewilderment kept us from civil war.

Spring will keep coming back, whatever happens. Right, Dad?

Every one of us is an experiment, and we don’t even know what the experiment is testing.

Earth had two kinds of people: those who could do the math and follow the science, and those who were happier with their own truths. But in our hearts’ daily practice, whatever schools we went to, we all lived as if tomorrow would be a clone of now.

He’d based his idea of this place on video clips of his mother. He wanted drama and showdown and righteous calls for justice from concerned citizens. Instead, he got America.

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.