Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [26]

I see the sudden light streak of a meteor flashing westward across the sky. I stare after it, hoping to see another. Then my stepmother calls me and I go back to her. … “There are city lights now,” I say to her. “They don’t hide the stars.” She shakes her head. “There aren’t anywhere near as many as there were. Kids today have no idea what a blaze of light cities used to be—and not that long ago.” “The stars are free.” She shrugs. “I’d rather have the city lights back myself, the sooner the better. But we can afford the stars.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 26

Note

The chapter’s quietest exchange carries its heaviest irony without comment. The stepmother’s ‘we can afford the stars’ turns privation into a budget line, and the closing shrug (‘I’d rather have the city lights back myself’) refuses the consolation Lauren is reaching for. The meteor — a thing seen only because the world has gone dark — sits above the whole exchange as an unstated image.