Summary

At the outset of the narrative, Cassie takes the train home from work and observes all of the Believers glued to their phones. The tech workers all wear a similar glazed look and puffy vests. On the train, “the black hole hovers above the empty seat to [her] left” (3). The black hole has been with Cassie since she was a child, looming in her periphery though no one else can see it. When she gets off at her stop, Cassie sees a small crowd on the sidewalk before an orange flame erupts and a man sets himself on fire. That evening, Cassie struggles to suppress images of the man’s burning body. The narrator is thirty-three years old and nearly a year into working in Silicon Valley, “waiting for the truth of [her] life to crack open and reveal itself” (6). While she...