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He pointed at the screen, to a big dark area, a dead spot in Ethan Levin’s world. Slowly, as we watched, new X’s appeared, the habitat regrowing, renewing itself.

“Yeah,” I said. Then I asked: “Do the living O-creatures ever remember the ones that died?”

He squinted at me and said nothing.

…

“But your stock?”

Harry gave a big laugh. “Oh, yeah. The stock. The way they keep you here, hanging. Well, fuck the stock. I never cared much about money. It’s only this place that made me want money. Fuck it. I have a house, a car, a wife who works, and about a hundred vendor-logo T-shirts. Wha…

Ethan had made this confession without premeditation, but once it was out, he realized he wanted reassurance. He wanted this man with decades of experience to tell him bugs were normal, you couldn’t always find them right away, he wasn’t a failure. He sat back waiting for the soothing words, the so…

He got out the broom and started sweeping, for no reason; the lasagna stayed intact and the scattered frost would melt. It was just a way to keep getting rid of her. The last hair from her brush, the last sloughed-off skin cell, all the bits of her DNA—how long until they disappeared? He thought it…

His cheeks went hot, his hands cold. Now he could feel how angry he was, could let the anger take him over—now that the alcohol had changed it, his anger, made it not more distant but bigger, more dramatic, heroic, like he was walking around in some other guy’s feelings. Yes, much better now, a str…