Summary

This short story follows the perspective of Honeysuckle Speck, a butch lesbian living in a small town in Colorado. When we meet Honeysuckle, she is excited because her girlfriend, Yolanda Rusted, is moving in with her. Honeysuckle lives in a poor neighborhood; she lives with a Russian couple in the upstairs apartment. Across the street, the Blake family, a young boy named Templeton Blake and his mother, Ursula, live in a one-family house.

The day that Honeysuckle's girlfriend comes to move in, the sky begins to rain golden needles. The needles kill almost everyone standing outside that day, including Honeysuckle's girlfriend and her mother, who came to help move her in. After they both die, Honeysuckle takes shelter in the Blake house and sleeps there for a few days, figuring out her next move. During her stay there, her Russian neighbor, Andropov, begins...