Summary

As Hazel walked away from her father’s trailer, she considered whether Byron might send a microdrone to kill her. Still, she wandered on past a gaggle of retirees watching the sunset and over to a strip mall that included a Gogol outlet and a dive bar named the Spotted Rose. She went into the bar and ordered a beer out of a used glass, relishing the filth of her surroundings in contrast to the antiseptic Gogol Hub. She sat next to an ill-looking man in a leather cowboy hat and ugly vest. He asked if she was in “‘the midst of a personal crisis,’” and she told him she’d left her husband (79). Smiling, the man introduced himself as Liver and bought her another drink.

Hazel began to tell her story, starting with her wedding. It had been officiated by a Gogol...