Kim

Kim is a Consumer, the one human sacrifice who has been chosen by a worldwide lottery to eat the toxic donut—a super-concentrated pastry made from all of humanity's toxic pollution and waste from the previous year. This sacrificial act is going to take place at an annual awards show, which will be televised live that evening. In the story, Ron, the administrative assistant for the show, walks Kim through the rehearsal. As Ron explains how the show works, the reader finds out that, unlike previous years, this year's lottery was involuntary. Throughout the story, Bisson does not reveal why Kim is on the show. This ambiguity is magnified by the fact that only Ron's part of the dialogue is revealed—Kim is not heard.

However, although the reader never hears exactly what Kim is saying, her part of the dialogue can be reconstructed through Ron...