Chapter 1 Summary

Howie, a young office worker, enters his workplace. He takes the escalator to the intermediate level of the building, also known as the mezzanine and sits down at his office. On the way, he observes what he regards as the beauty of the escalators. He transfers his CVS bag to his other hand and cannot remember what is inside, and then makes some observations about what carrying small bags signals to others. At lunch, he visited a Papa Gino's for food and bought some milk to go with his cookie. The attendant, Donna, asked him if he wanted a straw, which leads Howie to observe that he had become uninterested in using straws for anything other than milkshakes for some time. In a lengthy, two page footnote, Howie recounts the first time he remembers seeing a straw in his soda can. In his...