“My lover is experiencing reverse evolution. I tell no one. I don’t know how it happened, only that one day he was my lover and the next he was some kind of ape. It’s been a month and now he’s a sea turtle.”

The opening lines of the story establish that something otherworldly has happened. A fantastical occurrence in an otherwise ordinary world is a key element in fabulist stories.

“He is shedding a million years a day.”

This is a dramatic statement that increases the story’s sense of urgency. If Ben’s reverse evolution is happening this quickly, the reader knows Annie doesn’t have much time left with him.

“At first, people called on the phone and asked me where was Ben. Why wasn’t he at work? Why did he miss his lunch date with those clients? […] I told them he was sick, a strange sickness, and to please stop calling. The stranger thing was, they did.”

How quickly Ben’s colleagues stop reaching out to express their concern over his absence shows how isolated Annie becomes, reflecting one of the burdens of being his caretaker, a key theme of the story.