“It’s not a circle of life, Kyle thought, though it behaves something like one. But a circle leaves itself behind. Life was something else, a kind of trick that left nothing behind. A body consumed more matter than it was composed of, beat its will against the environment, expended monumental energies, and filled space with so much noise and motion it made no sense for it all to vanish back inside itself, a complex mechanism for making music, and when the key stopped turning not a single note still hung in the air. It was almost spooky.”