Asteroid City -

The road out of Asteroid City was long and straight, disappearing into a heat shimmer that made the horizon look like water. Stanley got into the car. Midge waved from the diner doorway. Woodrow started the engine.

"So," she said. "What now?"

The power came back on. The military men ran in circles. The sky remained stubbornly blue. The next morning, the quarantine was lifted. There was no mention of the event in any newspaper. The men in black suits took the cube and left a check for the town—a sum large enough to pave the roads and install streetlights and build a new wing on the diner. The Stargazer children were given certificates of participation. Woodrow did not win Junior Stargazer of the Year. The title went to a girl from Nebraska who had built a solar-powered marshmallow roaster. Asteroid City

He looked out at the crater. The lizard with the blue tail was back, sunning itself on a rock. "I suppose we go home." The road out of Asteroid City was long

They drove. The dust rose up behind them like a benediction. Somewhere, in a sky no telescope could see, a parent and a child were holding hands, crossing an impossible distance, heading home. Woodrow started the engine