Not long after a distant star suddenly brightened a thousand-fold and gamma rays gobsmacked life on earth, a prairie dog emerged from its burrow in a deep narrow canyon in what was once southern Utah.

Ever wary of predators, it fed quickly and returned to its burrow unable to remark on the extreme quiet and supreme stillness of its surroundings. After many days of this, the prairie dog began to range farther and farther from its burrow. It skirted many carcasses, some limbless, some with wings, some with four legs and some with two.

It fed well and became less wary of predators. More and more often at the height of day, it hunched on a high ridge and watched the horizon for hours. It was still unable to remark on the extreme quiet and supreme stillness of its surroundings, but the prairie dog returned less and less to its burrow deep in the narrow canyon.

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A day came when the prairie dog set out. Sudden storms interrupted the extreme quiet and supreme stillness of its days and nights, but forage was plentiful, predators were absent, and the prairie dog was compelled by a something. A something new.

On the very periphery of awareness probing to find a foothold in the prairie dog’s nature, it could almost be called a question. The prairie dog felt it as a restless push enticing it across what was once southern Utah to what was once southern Nevada.

At a place that was flat and hard with many unfamiliar things and many dusty carcasses, the prairie dog sensed what might be an answer to the extreme quiet and supreme stillness. A something. A something new.

A call. And now a response.

Deep below, a gamma ray gobsmacked sleeper had awakened and was ready for all takers. As in every cosmos, life in its rarest and most lasting forms is patient.

Next to what was once a signpost that read Homey Airport, the prairie dog began to dig for its answer. Something anew.