The fabric of the heavens

"The shopping centres would be deserted for half a day after an incident; and then the people would slowly creep out again, wistfully breathing in the silent air, like animals sniffing the wind; and reassured, they would start to go about the hundred trivial tasks of the day which the automatism of ordinary life had made endearing, comprehensible-containing no element of prediction.... One has seen rabbits scatter like this at the first report of a gun, only to re-emerge after half an hour and timidly come out to grass again-unaware that the hunter is still there, still watching."