Gately, the wraith, and the figurants (viii)
The wraith says it mars the memory of the end of his animate life, this son’s retreat to the periphery of life’s frame.
Context
Even the dead have memory trouble: the wraith speaks of his animate life as a fixed record that Hal's disappearance retroactively spoils. A marred memory is what a wraith is left with — and what the ninety days of Entertainment-making were meant to repair.