The Snowbank Orbit

On a cold winter night, an elderly couple step outside and notice something strange in the sky. A wide arc of glowing light drifts slowly across the stars, like a pale bank of snow moving through space.

As they watch, the sight stirs old memories and quiet reflections about the lives they have lived together. For a brief moment, the vast universe feels close and personal.

First published in 1962 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fritz Leiber's The Snowbank Orbit is a gentle scie...