Ginger peers through the lens of the telescope. Mars is leaving the seventh house. Soon, she knows, it will be in retrograde. “He’s going back,” she whispers to herself.

Fred carries the last of his belongings out of the apartment. He locks the door but instead of removing the key he pushes sideways, breaking it off in the cylinder. He stares for a moment at the piece left in his fingers then turns and walks away.

As Mars approaches opposition it begins a period of retrograde motion, which means it will appear to move backwards in a looping motion with respect to the background stars. The next retrograde period will begin on November 16, 2007 and last through to January 31, 2008 with Mars appearing to move backwards through the sky from the constellation Gemini into Taurus. ~ Wikipedia