Chrissy Stegman

As Joel and Clementine meet for the first time on the train ride to Mauntak, you can see a raccoon in a baby bjorn carrier nestled against the chest of a sleeping man in a pink terry cloth bathrobe. He is seated just behind Joel. The raccoon is wearing a collar that reads, Pinky. The footage was dropped as an outtake. At the end of this scene, you can still see a tiny raccoon paw behind Joel’s head as he faces Clementine who has turned around in her seat to talk to Joel.

CHRISSY STEGMAN is a poet & writer from Baltimore, Maryland. Her work appears in many journals such as Rattle, River Heron Review, Gargoyle, Fictive Dream, and Variant Lit. She won the 2025 Ellen Conroy Kennedy Prize for Poetry and has multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations. http://www.chrissystegman.com