"No, there ain't. Ain't nothing that can replace it."

And that's the horror of the matter. Dan's life is objectively better now. He's healthy as he can be, well-fed and nourished, in a loving relationship, surrounded by those who care about him, with a roof over his head - and he thinks he'd give it all up for one more day with Ellie. There's that black hole again, and he can keep feeding all the happiness into his life into it and it will still consume and destroy and devour and tarnish.

"I had a family curse placed on me when I was young. I always told myself she'd be safe from it because we didn't share a surname and we weren't blood relatives. Spent so much time worrying about that that it didn't never occur to me that I could might lose her any other way."

He selects his screws and hinges. "Reckon don't neither of us talk about this much with no one."