Apex Hides the Hurt

The protagonist imagines hypothetical city A, which is renamed and repopulated over time by different groups. The narrator concludes that every new iteration of the city is bound to fail because the inhabitants make the mistake of thinking they own it when they give it a new name.

After the protagonist’s fall cuts the party short, Beverly, the librarian, helps him back to his hotel, but he does not allow her to come up to his room. He is upset to find that his hotel room has been cleaned. He neglected to hang the Do Not Disturb sign, giving the housekeeper the opportunity to clean. The sign lies torn in half on the perfectly made bed. He lies awake in bed thinking about how he got to this point in his life. He asks himself what name he is traveling under, implying that he uses aliases. He thinks about how his life changed after his hospitalization, but he dismisses the distinction of a before and after as “counterfeit” (190).

By noon the next day, the Help Tourists are gone. The protagonist’s clean room and the empty hotel make him feel that things have reset to the day of his arrival.