THE MARRIED COUPLE

THE HUSBAND is tall, bearded. The fresh calluses on his otherwise soft, pink hands suggest a recent foray into manual labor.

THE WIFE is dark-eyed and fierce. She needles him with criticism, but I get the sense that her thorny exterior is mostly a show for my benefit.

THE WIFE: I think women and men use reps differently. Women like to create things for other people. Men are a lot more fascinated by the rep's ability to destroy things. They love putting shit in there just to watch it disappear. Doesn't matter what it is. If it won't burn, it goes in the rep. A pair of old shoes they've worn through, a bunch of old lightbulbs. Even a wedding ring. They'll rep it just to be rid of it.

THE HUSBAND: You know I wasn't trying to get rid of my wedding ring. I was specifically putting it in there so I wouldn't keep losing it!

THE WIFE: Yeah, that makes sense, except as soon as you scan the original, it's gone forever. The one you get back isn't the same ring. It's a different ring that just looks like the old one. It wouldn't be the one that I put on your finger in our wedding ceremony. It's a fake.

THE HUSBAND: I just don't see it that way. I scanned my ring because I wanted the ring to be backed up forever.

THE WIFE: Not that it matters now. It's gone, and so are any of the dupes we could've printed.

THE HUSBAND: Look, I didn't know you were going to clean out the rep's memory. I would've told you that the ring was in there.

THE WIFE: I always clean out the memory! Every week! You use that thing like it's a garbage incinerator. By the time the weekend rolls around, the memory banks are full to bursting with empty beer bottles and gum wrappers. And I still have no idea why you didn't print out at least one physical version of the ring after you scanned it in.

THE HUSBAND: I was going to, but–

THE WIFE interrupts him, groaning loudly.

THE WIFE: You will never, ever change.