Devlin on the turntable. In an endless loop the next day. Cold turkey—no news upon waking up, no looking at photos on social media to kill time, no weather report, no searching the name of some idiot, and no music. No. New music. It’s as if the days are suddenly too long. Don starts to hug trees outside. But there are no trees. The withdrawal drives Hannah to reflexively look at her hand as if it were holding a phone, and then to bite her hand. Karen stares with wide eyes at the ceiling and scratches herself now and then, and Peter rocks back and forth. The devices were home, brain, confidence, and a life purpose. Had been. Now there’s nothing. Don distributes small doses of heroin (Victoria station) during the first few days in order to keep the group calm.

After a week

HANNAH

Tries

To find peace by taking walks. She’s grown recently and now constantly stumbles over her limbs, the length of which she hasn’t gotten used to yet.

Taking walks is completely useless if it isn’t connected to looking at shopwindows. If it isn’t connected to the acquisition of products. Such an obsolete activity is unimaginable. Long gone are the times when families had Sundays off and traipsed through various forests with the goal of reaching some gastronomic establishment to consume drinks or pieces of cake with other families or individuals, happy that something has happened other than being with oneself and the trees. For modern families there were no Sundays anymore that would allow time for such useless undertakings. You always had to work. Either in the service branch or in preparation for a fulfilling Monday of work. The only people with time for taking walks are the unemployed.

The unemployed.

The unemployed are the rejects of the ant colonies—ants again, isn’t there any other metaphor? No, what would ants do with ants who sat around the house and smoked and scratched their balls all the livelong day. Unemployment isn’t really intended in human life, unless you’re part of the upper class, and then you have to represent. Represent the upper class. The value and tradition. Be a role model for working people of how stupid you can look while idle. Which inevitably leads to golf or alcoholism.

Speaking of which, thinks Hannah, the history of humankind is a succession of contempt, degradation, and cruelty. The easiest to hate are animals. Animals, say humans, have no feelings and are dumb, they’re things. Animals will be eaten.