He looks up. Again, it is there in the sky. The planet of awesome size, lit by no sun. An invisible titan, all thick black forests and jagged mountains and deep, turbulent oceans. It is very close now. So close that he wonders if he could touch it. As he reaches up, he thinks he sees movement on its surface. Through the canopy of the forests and upon the slopes of the mountains and on the shores of the churning ocean. People maybe. Crowds of people all wrapped in white cloth. They are leaning into each other like dropped puppets. They sway lifelessly. He feels horror in the back of his throat, but still he reaches up.

He can’t help himself. It’s just what he does next.

This has been traffic.

And now a word from our sponsors.

Do you have lost memories? Are there any memories that once were there but have since been misplaced? Or taken? Forcibly taken from you? Well, of course, how would you know if you had?

So let’s try this a different way. Do you ever feel like there is a gap in yourself? Do you ever act in ways that you do not understand and then immediately regret? Do you feel like there is a great abyss of meaning in your very core that will never be filled, and yet you cannot help but try to fill it?

Then yes, you have had many things taken from you, memories among them. And what you need is Lifelock.

After signing up for Lifelock, you will be immediately picked up by our friendly, armed technicians and transported in protective restraints to a secure and heavily guarded facility, where you will be safely locked away in an unmarked cell with no windows or lights, so no one will be able to see you or get to you. Once you are locked away and your identity has been destroyed in all possible records, you will be forever safe from identity theft, impersonation, assassination, assignations, and, of course, memory removal. You will never do anything again that might put you at risk of harm. Everything you could conceivably do puts you at risk of harm. You must stay still in the darkness. We will hold you close to our chest, almost suffocatingly close, in the warm still of our empty forever.

We’ll protect you from this world by completely removing you from it. Lifelock.

This has been a message from our sponsors.

Oh, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my boyfriend Carlos on the air before, but . . .

47

“Mom,” Josh protested as Diane wrapped her arms around his sloped, furry shoulders.

She gripped his body tight, placing one hand across his wide back and the other hand to the back of his head, between the tall, pointed ears.

“Josh,” she said over and over. “Josh. Josh.” Jackie placed her casted hand on his mother’s back.