“Irma Nail, who lived next door to Gordon, was setting off as usual for her morning paper. She was not easily distracted from her routine, even by the apocalypse. She stepped out of her house in her purple rain boots, muttering about the freakish weather, and glanced up at the sky just as a wolf fell out of it.'Outrageous!' She snorted as it lay stunned at her feet. 'I've heard of it raining cats and dogs, but this is ridiculous!' and she stepped over the stricken beast, putting her umbrella up in case more wolves should tumble, uninvited, from the sky.”

“She stumbled back a step. “Carlos was the…?”“Panther, aye.”“He’s a cat?” And her boss was a dog. She shook her head. Was her next door neighbor a goldfish?”

“A dark purple sky filled with the first few evening stars made her feel small. She smiled; that was what she expected from the sky. All her life, she'd gone out at night and stood beneath that blue velvet darkness. It was her temple, the true house of God, and it never failed to remind her of her place.”

“The oldest woman in the village, Paciencia, predicts the weather from the flight of birds:Today it will rain toads, she says,squinting her face into a mystery of wrinklesas she reads the sky - tomorrow,it will be snakes.”

“When she reached the shallow end, Kingsley held out his hand and pulled her up, but she lost her step and fell into his arms, her body crushing momentarily against his.”

“Her spirit flew out into the nightAnd the sky reached downAnd drew her up,And she was filled with light...And she is happy.”