Ripe: A Novel by Sarah Rose Etter

Author:Sarah Rose Etter [Etter, Sarah Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

I find an empty seat on the bay side as the train lurches to the office. Through the window, the water reflects the dark gray of the clouds, doubling the silver of the prestorm sky. The scene is split in two by the long milky white shard of a great egret, which spreads its wings and takes flight.

I pull out my phone and read the top headline of the day:

CDC Warns New Virus Will Run Rampant in Coming Weeks

I picture the virus, invisible and insidious, entering the pink tissue of lungs and multiplying. I can almost hear the virus moving toward us, like the approaching hooves of angry horses, wild eyes glinting in the sunrise.

All of this information rushes in, all the terror of the new day. The world is distant and at the same time right on top of me, on top of us, its knife at our throats. We are everywhere all at once all of the time now. We are digital witnesses to each other’s tragedies.

The black hole dilates in response to the news, as if we both know the virus is on the horizon, picking up velocity, aiming directly for us, the future not a bright light but a bullet.

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