This book had a hard life. It had all its matches, though – so why the battered condition? It may have spent a few years in a drawer, shuffled and shoved by other loose objects. But that wouldn’t explain the stains.

It seems a shame that a firm devoted to keeping things clean should look like it slept in the gutter.

In any case, Muscarello’s shows up on some EPA documents, like many dry-cleaners. The interesting part, though, is this: Muscarello cleaners is not in a universe.