Summary

Conway remembers skyping with Darragh for the first time after Darragh found out Mairead was ill. Darragh’s appearance reminded Conway of his father “a memory which frightened [Conway]” (184). Darragh mocked Agnes and her new fan-base, saying people would want to “touch the hem of her garment,” recognizing Agnes as “a kindred sufferer” (186). Conway then shifts to remembering how the city’s contamination became so large it shifted to “the most abstract realm of geopolitics” (187). Conway realizes that this now-international issue is the reason “[his] wife is in bed with her strength leaking from every pore of her body” (187).

Conway then returns to his present moment on All Souls’ Day, becoming “conscious of something stagnant in the house,” comparing himself to “something lost” (188). Conway then remembers a demonstration put on by the city to protest the water contamination, saying the city inhabited...