Bewilderment

by Richard Powers

They think we’re neurotic, Theo. That we’re a bunch of nutjobs. I was not included in that disparaged we. She meant her kind, the ones who could feel their way across the species line.

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

Someday we’ll learn again how to train on this living place, and holding still will be like flying.

THERE WAS A PLANET that couldn’t figure out where everyone was. It died of loneliness. That happened billions of times in our galaxy alone.