CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

The collection’s third story follows an unnamed, male protagonist who works at a theme park and: 1) accidentally kills a boy; 2) has the boy’s ghost talk to him at night; 3) catches his partner, Simone, cheating on him with a co-worker; 4) is almost killed by the dead boy’s father; and 5) wanders in the hills near his house, vowing to change who he is.

The story opens with a description of the “Center for Wayward Nuns,” which is “full of sisters and other religious personnel who’ve become doubtful” (34). The protagonist states that: “A young nun named Sister Viv came unglued [up] there last fall and we gave her a free season pass to come down and meditate near our simulated Spanish trout stream whenever she wanted” (34).

Sister Viv is at the theme park one day, “sitting cross-legged a few feet away from a Dumpster housed in a granite boulder made of a resilient synthetic material”(35) when she falls into the water. The protagonist “dive[s] in and drag[s] her out” (35). Viv comes to and “spits in [the protagonist’s] face and says [he] couldn’t possibly know the darkness in her heart,” to which the protagonist responds, “Try me” (35).