“He didn’t say anything else but felt pressure from inside from the sight he saw there—the girl on the table who acted as if she were not there, the men in the room, and things like ropes and wires, the most delicate parts of which they were made.

And Remal trades in this. I drop out of a box, thin-skinned like a maggot, and a cold bastard like Remal, moving the ropes and wires inside his anatomy, steps on me.”