I wanted to drive to California to stay at a solarium that existed in the past, when such buildings first opened.

When was that?

But I was asked instead to travel to the sun. Who could deny such a request?

I felt like a gunshot.

As I neared the star, it resembled an eyeball.

The mission was completed, but I was barely protected from the sun.

I returned home, but not without consequences.

I was afforded the best of care.

During my treatment, I noticed that the Earth was becoming too hot.

In the days that followed, the temperatures only increased.

Soon almost no one had a face.

Did they not notice?

Did they not care?

The few who still had faces had no bodies.

They could not walk.

The old legends would not save us.

The technologists were of no help.

Officials still discussed options, but the calls were brief and perfunctory.

What would we become, I wondered.

But at least I had been to the sun.