vii
I was still mulling myself over when the lights in the room guttered and dropped like a candle flame. There was rustling by the fucking bed, but I barely heard it, and didn’t turn to look. I didn’t turn to look yet, not until the screen flickered back to a tinted window and I heard [...]

vi
The sun had set, and by the time we got back onto the freeway the twilight line was moving west across the sky, chasing the oranges and purples toward the horizon. Jane fished a moist towelette out of her purse, and I wiped down my face. Though the road was empty, she slid over to [...]

v
We didn’t go straight there – wherever there was. She asked me to show her around the town – the places I’d worked, the spots I’d hung out. There wasn’t much to show, since I hadn’t done much after the university. I didn’t really hang out. I didn’t even move more than a few blocks [...]

iv
When she came to pick me up, I wasn’t depressed. I’d been feeling down now and again, but you have to understand – overall I wasn’t depressed, I was just ready to be done, like those last few weeks of classes. I was looking forward to death, actually. I’d taken care of my family and [...]

iii
When you’re smart, it’s easy to get by. You just have to manage your expectations. A low-wage job, a cheap apartment, cheap clothes – you remind yourself that you don’t really need that ‘20% more’ that everyone seems to want. So, I did that for awhile – paid off the college loan, even. But I [...]

ii
No matter where or when you go, you’ll always find the type of person who tries to beat the system. For whatever reason, these people get it into their head that the system – the “Man”, the government, the universe – is leeching away their well-being. They are resentful, sarcastic folk who look for the [...]

i

It all started when they made suicide legal.
I guess it really started before that, when that team of university scientists in Singapore set up Stephenson Lenses in the local emergency rooms. They were as surprised as anyone by their results: images of unexplained energy leaving the bodies of the dying. Of course the scientists were [...]