Chicuxulub Short Story

In the story “Chicxulub”, the narrator, Ted, compares a meteor to the death of his daughter which was caused by a car accident. One example given at the beginning of the story to show the extreme impacts of meteors was one which was sixty yards across and exploded nearly a hundred years ago with an impact equivalent to eight hundred Hiroshima bombs. The narrator used the meteor as an example of life because he was trying to express that you never know what can happen. Millions of meteors come close to the earth daily and we are lucky that one doesn’t hit us. He expresses that we should pray and be thankful that none of these unexpected things happen which could demolish the entire population.

After the impact of the first meteor is given by Ted, another meteor is

This one impacted the earth sixty-five million years ago and had devastating effects. Then, the author shares a little background information about his daughter and her whereabouts the night of the accident. He shares that she, Madeline, was seventeen years old and that him and his wife bought their daughter a car but couldn’t use it because the car was at the mechanics. Madeline wanted to see a movie and her friend was going to pick her up and drop her off. Late at night, Ted’s wife, Maureen, answered the phone and was shocked to find that their daughter had been hit by a car. Again, the narrator brings up the meteor, named Chicxulub, to compare how the meteor and death are related. He explains that this meteor came sixty-five million years ago and that “seventy-five percent of all known species were extinguished, including the dinosaurs.” He compares the incident of the meteor to his daughter’s situation because both the meteor and being hit by a car are unexpected events that both ruin lives. Also, the narrator states “calculate the chances