We’ re constantly looking for clues of what comes next, in tarot cards and tea leaves, in augury and biography, too. But can we ever find our futures by such means? In three thematically linked essays, B.J. Hollars explores what harbingers might have been present in the lives of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer before he invented the atomic bomb and civil rights activist Medgar Evers before he was murdered. He also considers his own overlooked portents in a static-filled universe. Taken together, these stories converge toward the humbling truth that life’ s only certainty is uncertainty, and our harbingers— no matter how strong— only offer insight in the aftermath.