Annotated Chapter 8 Page 26
Hey everyone, please take a minute to stop and appreciate that detailed, hand-drawn, long shot of Sparrow and Bianca’s apartment building in the top left.
Also: more environmental details in the kitchen! Compare a similar angle back in chapter 1. Less detail on the stove and the microwave, no dish towels or oven mitts or fridge magnets, no bag of sliced bread sitting out. This is the greatest visual upgrade since…uh…funny, no comparison’s coming to mind.
And hey, Sparrow’s the second person in this chapter to be hanging around with wet hair. Not the most orthodox way to make a subtle visual link between two characters, but we’ll go with it. (Insert your own “besides, neither of them is Orthodox” joke here.)
Sparrow: The reason I’m bringing this all up is . . . okay, how much do you know about Beings?
Sparrow (thinking): Got to explain as much as I can without giving Patrick away.
Mrs. Applebaum: Like that rabbit that caused all the fuss at South Station?
One long explanation (and a shower) later . . .
Sparrow: So it turns out I can see their fights. And apparently that’s weird.
Mrs. Applebaum: Well, you certainly don’t get it from my side. You don’t think your sperm donor could have been a Being, do you?
Sparrow: No, Mom, it’s like I told you. They’re not fertile. I mean, they have the cells and stuff, but when anyone takes some to put under a microscope, they disintegrate into carbon.