The uncanny can take a lot of different forms. Like when you move to a new town, and the stores are a little off, and the latitude is just different enough that the light hits things at a different angle. Or a creepy robot that tries hard to look human but doesn’t really make it. Maybe it’s a name that’s strangely familiar but you can’t quite place. Or a book you randomly find in the library, that you’re sure you’ve never seen before, but with each page you read you get more and more convinced you’ve already read it. Or a shapeshifter that isn’t quite done transforming.

But enough about irrelevant German philosophy.

Jesse has a lot on his plate right now, and a day or two that’s bound to be chock-full of chores. He’s got bureaucracies to navigate, at the utility companies and the university and who knows what else. He’s got a car to buy and a job to find and a house to stock, and Ms. Winters’ pile of papers isn’t going to read itself. Maybe in his spare time he can make a friend or two, but he’ll only have that spare time if he really buckles down and tackles these tasks first.

They say that against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain. We’ll see how Jesse does.