TENNISI.BMF: A cartoon of a smiling tennis player, ball in one hand, racquet in the other. They won’t be smiling this morning, when they arrive at the tennis courts only to find all eight courts have been commandeered by pickleball players, smacking their loud plastic balls across their tiny nets. Pop-pop-pop, all day long, driving the neighbors insane.

UGANDA_T.BMF: A map of the landlocked nation of Uganda in East Africa. Two of Africa’s Great Lakes lakes are marked on the map: Lake Albert in the west and the larger Lake Victoria in the southeast. What’s in a name? British imperialists named the vast lake in the southeast after the English monarch, Queen Victoria, and the smaller lake after her consort, Prince Albert. Before that, the lakes were known to locals as ‘Nnalubaale and Mwitanzige, respectively. In the future, they will be known by those names once again, respectfully.

FLORAL_9.BMF: A square floral design on the corner of the calling card of one Mr. Breaves, undertaker and sole proprietor of Grouls House. Mr. Breaves proffers the card with his long white fingers, and you accept. I will call you when the body is ready, he says in his high breathless voice.

MONTOR01.BMF: The dark screen of CRT monitor. It reminds you of a—what, what’s that? Behind your shoulder? No—your other shoulder. Something in your peripheral vision. Followed by a noise. A plop. You hear the noise again. Something heavy and viscous drips to the floor behind you.

VULTURET.BMF: A cartoonish illustration of a bald-headed vulture, clutching a fork and knife in its talons. Red finds the depiction of the scavenger offensive. Like all feeders of carrion, the vulture fills an essential ecological niche. Where would the world be, Red pauses to wonder, setting down his saw for a second, if there were no vultures?

UGANDAC.BMF: The flag of Uganda, showing six horizontal bands of black, yellow, and red repeated from top to bottom. In the center is a grey crowned crane, the national symbol of Uganda. In the 1970s Uganda was ruled by the brutal military dictator Idi Amin, who appears in Wikipedia in a list of notable fruitarians.

RESCTOR.BMF: A mask and resuscitation bag for CPR. Dr. Slife, D.D.S., has so many masks and so many kinds of mask in his surgical supply room. His office manager keeps inventory and she’s good at her job, meaning whenever he takes a mask home, he smuggles it back in later so she doesn’t notice.

SLING.BMF: A young person in a green hospital gown whose right arm is bound in a blue sling. The person’s expression is oddly unpained. They may even be smiling. Red understands perfectly that exquisite combination of pain and pleasure.

1STSMSGT.BMF: The shoulder sleeve insignia of a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. The rest of the uniform lies in tatters on the runway tarmac.

TELGIRL3.BMF: A telephone operator wearing a headset and holding a giant book in her hands, presumably the phone book. Remember calling Directory Service and being able to ask for anybody’s phone number? Dr. Slife dials and tells the operator he’d like the number for a Cutty Soames. What city, she asks. Slife doesn’t know and hangs up in a panic. He doesn’t know who or what or where Cutty Soames is, but every day the words dance on the tip of his tongue like they’re the only words he knows.

TRTOB_T.BMF: A map of the West Indies island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Unlike most Caribbean islands, tourism is not Trinidad and Tobago’s leading industry. Like Venezuela, its mainland neighbor 7 miles to the southwest, Trinidad and Tobago’s economy is dominated by oil and gas, of which the islands possess vast reserves. As far as petro-states go for Rod, Venezuela is better for business, but he’d much rather visit Trinidad and Tobago.

BLANKET.BMF: A sick child bundled in a blue blanket, a thermometer jutting from her mouth. She’s running a fever. The child’s parents tuck her into bed early, but she cannot sleep. When she closes her eyes, nightmarish visions dance before her, demons of some rank whose names come unbidden to the child. Moloch, Belphegor, and Belial. Azazel and Baal. Abaddon, the angel of the abyss. The child crawls from her bed and climbs weakly to her desk. In a fever dream she begins writing in crayon, transcribing the words inside her head. She works til dawn, finishing a manuscript of some 200 pages in Aramaic, Greek, and Latin, languages neither she nor her parents know. In the middle of the manuscript the child has drawn a portrait of the devil, the thick crayon markings in Scarlet, Burnt Orange, Midnight Blue, and Thistle lending an air of hideous innocence to the demon.

READING.BMF: A bearded man reading a newspaper in a comfy chair. He flips to the sports page and spies a recap of last night’s game: “An exciting 3rd inning for the Charleston Shoe Thieves when pitcher Amir Murphy began floating several inches above the mound. The act of levitation was ruled legal by the refs and the game went on, though an extended timeout was called when the left half of the stadium experienced an inter-dimensional shift. Play proceeded when the stadium cohered in this reality again, even though most of the fans in attendance were now nothing more than large vertical bands of ultraviolet light.”

TOMATO.BMF: A ripe tomato. Historically, no garden produce has engendered as much category confusion as the tomato. Is it a fruit or a vegetable? A dangerous nightshade or tasty treat? Perfect for turning into sauce or ideal for a deadly witch’s brew? For these reasons alone, the tomato is Mattie’s favorite fruit. Or veggie.

HELOGUY3.BMF: An African-American office worker holding a large placard that reads HELLO. He drops the sign, revealing another sign underneath that reads IS IT ME. A beat later he drops that sign, revealing another one that says YOU’RE LOOKING FOR? Then it hits you that the man is recreating Bob Dylan’s iconic 1965 music video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” except with Lionel Ritchie’s 1983 hit, “Hello.” TikTok is wild.

SUNSRAYS.BMF: The morning sun rising above a calm ocean expanse, the golden rays radiating upward from the horizon like beams of angelic light. Rod never tires of the sight. It’s been years—decades even—since he’s touched down on land. Too dangerous. Too toxic. His ship is a self-contained universe, bobbing up and down on the endless blue-green waters. He perfected the techniques of life at sea long ago. Desalinization, a small key lime tree, the fishing nets and seabird traps. The only thing he really misses from before is college ball and a beer on a Saturday afternoon. He doesn’t even miss his riches. What would they be worth to him here? What would they be worth to anyone?

MOUSE6.BMF: A curious computer mouse with an upright design like a mini vacuum cleaner. Mattie came across it in a rummage sale and scooped it up right away. Totally bonkers, absolutely the opposite of ergonomic. But Mattie loves the mouse for its sheer impracticality. Not everything of value needs to be functional.