Chapter 19

6:30 PM Sunday: The sun was sinking, and it was turning cold, but I felt no desire to stir from my park bench. The puzzle seemed just too much for me this time. I didn’t even know if I had too many pieces, or too few.

After lunch, Jim had talked me into going home to make up with Janet, which wasn’t hard: we were old friends. The kids wanted to play with Uncle Steve as usual, but my mind was elsewhere. As soon as I could, I made my apologies, and left to go walking downtown. Finally I even gave that up: I decided to freeze to death right there in the park if I could, took a seat and stayed there for two hours, thinking.

That’s where I was when it hit me. If I was cold before, I was turned to ice then. It had to be right. It explained everything. I got up and ran for my car. I had to find two things, fast. One, a newspaper vending machine: two, a phone.