He no longer recognized his face in the mirror no longer recognized it as a face just skin in different places and holes and lines going up or across his dog jumped in his lap tongue panting but it looked like it had too many legs and that made it look less and less like a dog he had trouble with sentences understanding them have a nice day what does nice mean when you say have first he was forgetting how to eat he could push a fork into a piece of carrot and could lift it to his lips then push it messily inside but it fell out eventually and the taste of the carrot seemed to be in his left ear not his mouth he could still drive took a drive out to the country the cows looked odd not like he remembered their muzzles ears small eyes they all stopped on their way up the slope to stare at him it's possible we are alone in this world with an insect that manifests itself in everything but us he said his girlfriend put her hands over her ears screaming stop it stop it stop it