“The bottom? There is no bottom. That's the joke. But come in. The mosquitoes are starting their shift. They are the only reliable workforce left in Michigan.”Elias Thorne · Peter James Stouffer
Samuel says Jim is there to learn the bottom of the county. Elias answers with a laugh dry enough to sound less like despair than contempt.
The joke works because it refuses the premise. There is no firm floor waiting below the grief, no final layer where the descent becomes clean or useful.
And still, after saying it, Elias opens the door. He notices the mosquitoes. The wit is locked in, but the world has not disappeared entirely.