Universal Harvester

by John Darnielle

This is a mood I can imagine if all this had taken place in South Carolina, maybe: all that salty air, high humidity, the coast giving way to broken shoreline. Or New Mexico, up in the mountains. The New Mexico Sarah Jane I can envision letting some anxiety bleed right through her expression, steering through the switchbacks on the way up to her cabin. But the Iowa Sarah Jane, the real one, has no beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her jaw doesn’t tremble and her hands don’t shake.