‘But every so often… once or twice a weeks (or perhaps once or twice a year) came the muffled thud of a distant explosion. The concussions were startling enough to distract Foyle from the furnace of vengeance that he stoked all through the silences. He whispered questions to the invisible figures around him in Sanitation.
‘What’s them explosions?’
‘Explosions?’
‘Blow-ups. Hear ’em a long way off, me.’
‘Them’s Blue Jauntes.’
‘What?’
‘Blue Jauntes. Every sometime a guy gets fed up… Can’t take it no more, him. Jauntes into the wild blue yonder.’
‘Jesus.’
‘Yep. Don’t know where they are, them. Don’t know where they’re going. Blue Jaunte into the dar… and we hear ’em exploding in the mountain. Boom! Blue Jaunte.’
from The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Absence Club 