Remnants — Episode 10

In the next-to-last seat on the Greyhound, Jason Thomas had been staring morosely out the long window when the comet ruptured. He put his nose against the glass, watched it disintegrate, then turned to look across the aisle at a pretty Hispanic girl breastfeeding her baby.

“Did you see that?” Comets are old. They don’t just fly apart.

She glanced over at him. Just another crazy on a bus, her look said. She resumed humming to her infant.

Jason looked up the aisle. No one else had seen. Most were asleep, their plush seats tilted back. He opened his mouth to sound an alarm, then remembered why he was there. When he turned back to the window, spears of light were shooting down in every direction.

Could it be just a well-publicized meteor shower? On purpose, he had neither watched television nor read a newspaper in three days. Not since he’d attacked his estranged wife.

He hadn’t meant to.

Cindy said he’d never see Teddy and Will again. She was moving out of state, and it was none of his business where.

Someone else must be involved. Jason wondered if he knew the lucky guy.

They argued in the kitchen, in the house he’d bought, where he no longer belonged nor was welcomed. His beautiful sons were at school. Fortunate for them.