Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel

caravans had once been pickup trucks,

She could call in sick to work, pack up her things, and be gone in a few hours. It is sometimes necessary to break everything.

These are not her people. She is marooned on a strange planet. The best she can do is pretend to be unflappable when she isn’t.

Tesch seems to be someone who mistakes rudeness for intellectual rigor.

“This life was never ours,” she whispers

“We were only ever borrowing it.”

“No one ever thinks they’re awful, even people who really actually are. It’s some sort of survival mechanism.”