Planētaimpinge

I read the word absentmindedly, in the way a person typically does when glancing down at a notification just before ordering the day’s first cup of coffee. Seeing my eyebags reflected off the pastry display I drop an extra fifty cents for another shot and stand over by the window, silently willing Physics 2 not start for another five minutes, for the rain to let up, for time to stop and let me breathe—another notification pops up. Several in fact, the phone almost vibrates in time with my pulse but other people’s ringers are on and suddenly a strange symphony erupts, buzzes and beeps and Peter Griffin's laugh echoing off the Starbucks walls. Finally I read that first notification, what I assumed to be some miscellaneous post from a nerdy, physicist Reddit thread and everything. Stops.

Planētaimpinge incoming. Over and over I trace the two words in my mind, flipping them back and forth like a smooth stone in the palm of a hand.

Planētaimpinge incoming.

Incoming Planētaimpinge.

The woman next to me leans over and asks if I know what it means.

“Sure. Planēta, Latin for planet. Impinge for interlocking, meshing, contact by fitting together, two or more bodies colliding. Smoosh—”

But she’s already running out the door and my name’s being called so I grab my cappuccino and sit back down, numbly taking a sip as I watch a looming planet crack the atmosphere through a raindrop streaking down the glass. I take a deep breath.