Things happen very quickly after this. Traveling each in its invisible glide path, the floating televisions begin to rise, suddenly accelerating with an inverse gravity 32 feet per second per second, up, out, and away. Though it is a bright, clear night with a three-quarter moon, the light from the screens remains clearly visible even as they rush into the distance. Each source seems to intensify as it rises, burning brighter and brighter. Then Harry and Lorraine see for the first time what is really unfolding -- though it will be a long time until their vision is matched by understanding. He ever so carefully heads down to the store, opens it up officially, and sits in front of his terminal. Upon his favorite stool. The cat & and the turtle ...lan are perfectly still. He types in the American version: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.. And while he is occupied a woman with a misarranged ear and burning eyes tiptoes past and leaves, without even a tinkle from the chandelier. There are hundreds of new lights flickering in the sky, tumbling together and flying apart, weaving mutual spirals, hiding and revealing themselves in the backdrop of stars. More rise to join them every moment. And now we can see for the first time the immensity of their numbers, mounting up into the thousands, the millions, the hundreds of millions. "I know this one. Blame It on Anais Nin, featuring Sally Field and David Duchovny." "It's just an 'X Files' rerun. The woman escaped from that government lab. Her blood was replaced by polymer resins." "I bet we can rent it." "Save it for my poker night with the boys." "Which would be when?" "Any day now." All around the world they are ascending, each and every one making its way into the sky. From where Lorraine and Harry are standing the night is wound all round in a rippling veil of lights, a shroud as big as the sky, a radiant inverse flood pouring off the planet forever. In all of human memory there has been no sight like this. There will never be another.