Joelle visits Gately in the Trauma Wing
To avoid the mirror AA hauls out in front of them. To avoid acknowledging their old dear friend the Substance’s betrayal, and grieving it. Plus let’s not even mention the mirror-and-vulnerability issues of a newcomer that has to wear a U.H.I.D veil. […] A 13th-Stepper is still running from the mirror himself.
Context
The catalogued Mirrors sighting, inside Gately's excursus on 13th-Stepping: newcomers grab at romance "to avoid the mirror AA hauls out in front of them," the predator "is still running from the mirror himself," and between the two the raw drops the compounding case — a newcomer whose non-appearance is institutional, veiled by U.H.I.D. ("U.H.I.D veil" as written). The mirror here is wholly figurative and wholly instrumental: AA's core tool, hauled out like equipment. Carlisle's catalogue row builds the linkage outward — this mirror against the A.F.R.'s road mirrors (n.110's territory: mirrors stretched across dark highways so drivers die accelerating into their own headlights), "the same instrument pointed opposite ways," reflection as recovery and reflection as weapon — Carlisle's reading, recorded not adopted. What this raw itself supports is the AA half: the mirror hauled out in front of you, and the ones who keep running from it. (C, reading)