Past an Empty Space

Ashley is not rude and does not take revenge — she does something far stronger: she withdraws her gaze from Jacob. His self has been assembled since childhood out of other people’s attention — the crowd parts, palms reach out, girls lower their voices. A one-second “looked and walked past” is a microdose of non-existence: for the first time, the mirror gave no reflection.

Note the irony Jacob himself cannot see: what he experienced for one second and remembered (“no one had ever treated him like that”) is Simon’s daily, around-the-clock mode of existence. The author let the king taste invisibility — exactly one drop. A whole life made of such drops is what is called “being an empty space”.