Chapter 29

He didn’t seem bothered by the situation, and we got back to my car without incident, and from there drove back to his house, where he immediately went to bed and I sat in the kitchen trying to figure out what had happened. I knew drugs had been involved, and alcohol. A party? Possibly. But beyond that vague impression I simply could not remember!

Okay, I told myself. This has got to stop.

I got out my black notebook and made an entry to this effect. I scanned the entries and saw the various occurrences of the number nine, among these other, life-questioning entries. Then I looked again at the number-nine entries in a bemused fashion.

I turned the page and wrote, rather large, a number nine. Because my hands weren’t all that steady, the line and the circle didn’t quite line up, but overlapped. I stared at the figure and puzzled. Then it struck me that the number appeared like a zero and a one together.