When the walked out toward the deserted road, the sun had already risen high above the plains. The dew had dried, and the short bristly grass rustled and crunched beneath their feet. Around them myriads of grasshoppers cried out, screaming, and a sharp, bitter smell floated up from the sun-warmed ground.
The road was strange: perfectly straight, it came up from the dull blue horizon, followed the Earth’s arc, and went down behind the other dull blue horizon, at the spot where day and night, right around the clock, something very large and very far away flared up, glimmered, wavered, swelled, and then subsided. The road was wide and reflected the sunlight dully, and its surface seemed to be on top of the plain in a massive strip, several centimeters thick and rounded at the edges, made of
