After the divorce he bought a place. He promptly cut down the 100 year old oak tree and poured a sea of asphalt to replace the adorable front lawn. To her it looked like black lava, an asphalt ocean lapping up on the shores of the cottage. He immediately parked broken vans cars and trucks on it, ones he planned to rebuild and sell someday. Now the property looked like an anonymous self storage garage. After the settlement he bought a plasma television the size of one wall and spent his days smoking, staring, absorbing the flickering blue light.