“Fire in the Sky”
“At times, at least ten of the meteors lit up the dark sky simultaneously. There were pauses, when they thought the shower had ended, but then the streaking lights returned to awe them once again. The ancients saw these showers as lucky or as bad omens, as human souls leaving their bodies, as angels being cast out of heaven. The meteorites that landed on earth were considered magical gifts from the gods. Science had clarified the matter, but the man and woman were no less impressed by the night’s display than their predecessors had been two millennia before. The showers were a phenomenon of grand beauty.”