"And Then Her Head Exploded..."

That's what I'm calling my autobiography should it ever be written.
Is it just me or does that bear look horrified?

In high school we used to be assigned these timed writings at the start of every class. I'd just be getting going and the teacher would call "time," so I'd end every fragmented story with, "and then, somewhere in a far corner of the world, someone completely unrelated to this story detonated a nuclear bomb, obliterating all life on Earth, save insects." Sorry Mrs. Recher. What a pain I must have been!

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro was recommended to me by a number of people, mostly older women friends and my mom, who'd never read any science fiction before apparently because it totally floored them. Mr. Ishiguro is a very talented and prominent author who's won many awards, but the only thing that kept me turning the pages of this predictable, (to anyone who's been a Ray Bradbury fan or a reader of other weird tales) story of clone existential angst, were the chapter endings.

"Everything was fine and going according to plan, when Ruth and Tommy split up and it all got confused."

"Of course I'll never know for sure, but I think she did understand. And even if she didn't, what occurs to me now is that she probably knew all along, that I'd become Tommy's carer, and that we'd "give it a try", just as she'd told us to in the car that day."

"--and that's why I was knocked so off balance by what he came out with the day we walked around the field."

Every time I came across one of these, at the end of another chapter in which my main thought was, "I totally see where this is going," my reaction was, "Crap, I have to keep going now!"
That's one of the things I'm working on in my revision of Dirt Nap. (Well, not making people grudging plow forward, but--you know, chapter endings...) The world doesn't blow up, and hopefully my head won't any time soon either. But what do you think of these? (Feel free to leave anonymous comments. Feel free to tell the truth.)

"She repeated the phrase over and over and let her head nod to the beat and made her fingers tap and flick the air, trying to use as much brain as possible. Maybe she could override whatever part was creating that thing on the seat, which was now starting to pluck at the sleeve of her jacket."

"He didn't think Dave was a threat to anyone but himself at this point, not yet. Someday soon the memory would break the surface though, and it would be his job to help pick up the pieces."

Would you turn the page? Have any chapter ending ideas of your own? Ala world explosions?