Emery looked out the window. He looked at the phone in his hand. He opened it up and turned it off. He sighed and clambered up from the recliner and headed to his front door and opened it.

There was so much property. An acre of flat grassland leading south to some forested hills that marked the end of the Missouri River Valley. Supplemental Route QQ was the only visible sign of civilization, and even then he only saw a vehicle roll by every fifteen minutes or so. The air was cool but the sun was baking so the air was humid with the smell of grass.

No one saw this place like Emery did. No one. It was like his own private universe. There’s a kind of dignity in solitude that was hard to quantify. It’s really easy to convince yourself of the nobility intrinsic to isolation, especially after having a long, gray life that was mainly determined by other people.

Emery had walked off of his porch to the short, sparse grass that ran alongside his gravel driveway. He kicked off his house shoes. His gray toes were wrinkled with sweat, and it felt good to plant them on the thin yellow grass. He stared at his feet. There was a dime-sized patch of gray hair on the nubs of his big toes. He was a bit north of the proper time to trim his toenails.

The ground beneath Emery’s feet darkened as his wiggled his toes. A big fat cloud fell over the sun like a rug. He looked up at the road. The world was suddenly dim and dull around him as it was swamped by the overcast sky. He sighed and looked back at his feet.

Emery was sliding his loafers back on when he witnessed another shift in color below his feet. The ground grew even dimmer. The cloud seemed to harden in the sky and saw no traces of movement at its edges. It seemed frozen in the sky, and it was getting darker. Around him, the air took on the image of a weird twilight. Light peering around corners in an orange corona. A purple tinge to air around him. Emery backed up, heading toward his door as the air grew darker and darker. He turned around and started walking to his door, unsure of himself, and his right shoe fell off. He turned around to look at it and it was vibrating, slowly. Emery started coughing and fell to one knee, still clutching the walker, staring at the vibrating shoe, which began to levitate a few inches off of the ground.