Summary

Jeffrey awakens in the Convergence facility and senses Madeline’s presence. Due to this, Jeffrey comments that he never felt more alive than when he witnessed his mother die. Eventually Jeffrey is led to the foot unit where he once again meets the monk. However, the monk is different this time, he seems disheveled (food is all over his robe) and indifferent about everything. He claims that he has “outlasted his memory” (249) and that he only speaks Uzbek now. Jeffrey asks him what he does when he is not talking to those is the hospice, the monk answers, “I walk the halls” (250).

Soon after, Jeffrey is guided to a room where Ross lays, hairless and naked, on a slab, and Ross mutters the words “gesso on linen” (253) (an art term). A woman in the room tells Jeffrey that life is a biological...