Cirrus@Austlit

'A meteor the shape of a fist went past the kitchen window at dinnertime. Its shadow passed over the whole suburb. Dogs cowered and shook beneath tables and cats climbed the folded trunks of curtains. The butter melted and the milk curdled and the peas shrivelled in their bowl. Cars in streets screeched to a halt. All manner if electrical equipment bombinated into life: phones rang, horns horned, radios relayed the static of the big bang and fluorescent lights flickered nervously on and off, on and off, on and off. And then the world went supremely quiet, as if the animate and inanimate alike were vested with the same spirit and knew somehow that something awful was about to occur.' (Introduction)