Streaks of fire showered down from the dark skies above, hailing silicates from the heavens, and depositing them upon the earth just outside of Lubbock, Texas. Eryn watched the sight from the passenger seat of her boyfriend, David's turquoise Bentley. He had his arm around her shoulder, drawing her near, and they watched with marvel, inspiring romance beneath the breathtaking view. As the sky rocks penetrated the earth's atmosphere, they trailed behind them empennages that sparked with the same passion as the telenovelas Erin watched so often with her dear friend, Gloria.
David pressed a kiss to Eryn's cheek as the show came to a close, and it was nearly time for her mother to pick her up from the library, where she thought she had been all day, working on an essay that Eryn told her was due tomorrow. But there was no assignment to complete. Eryn stayed quite on top of her schoolwork, for she did not wish to fall behind and jeopardize her advanced standing. She was to graduate from university with a bachelor's degree in English, though she yet had two semesters remaining. Her mother was so proud, having never had the opportunity to get a college education, as was the way before Eryn's generation.
Moments after David turned out of the library parking lot, Eryn's mother turned in from the opposite direction. He knew to turn right rather than left, for her mother would surely take notice of the only Bentley cruising Lubbock and she would know they had been together instead of what Eryn had promised. Her mom was never a fan of Eryn's beloved David, but she loved him more than existed all the matter of the known universe.
Eryn's mother stopped beneath the drop-off and pickup canopy in front of the sliding glass doors, though the library had just closed for the evening and Eryn was the last remnant of breath that remained. Dyann turned her head to face Eryn and she wore her usual dead expression after a long shift at work. She was a nurse and she worked all the time to keep food upon the table.
"Thanks for picking me up. I'm sorry to be a bother; I know you're tired," I said. I had only asked her to pick me up so my alibi was established. No one made me feel more alien to this planet than mine own mother, for she was a zombie and we were merely life associates. She still resented me for ruining her life back in Odessa. To this day, she swore time and time yet again that I had no father. I assumed she was speaking hyperbolically, and still harbored resentment toward him over something. Perhaps I was that something. Either way, she was a pariah in her native town, thus we relocated to Lubbock when I was but a wee babe.