The truth is out there.

All around her, people flashed off and on like slides on overhead projectors, each time reappearing in a different, fixed position. The grocery store’s aisles weren’t any more or less crowded than a typical day; people spattered the produce section. They had been perusing the stockpiles of Red Delicious apples, Anjou pears, Haas avocados, checking for bruises, when the lights came down.

She had never seen anything like this. A blinding light covered everything as far as she could see, or rather, not see. Time stopped. People began blinking in and out of existence, in the nature of turn signals, each one going at its own rate, but all blinking. She didn’t understand why she was an exception.

She had crouched down next to a giant cardboard cutout of Donald Trump holding a can of mixed nuts in each hand—a new ad campaign for Emerald. She had noticed his hair…