I was walking, and it seemed like days had passed. I passed out at the feet of an old man. I awoke and he told me I had been walking for days and had passed out at his feet. The old man’s house was well furnished, and so I thanked him for bringing me there. He offered me glass after glass of water, all of which I drank with fervor. I agreed with the old man when he claimed that walking in this heat wasn’t a good idea, and that doing so with no food or water for days at a time was an even worse idea. I sat back and ruminated. Memory of the past few days was weak, but that was not considered unusual by him nor I. I had told him about my ever increasing intake of alcohol. The old man claimed that the mind was like a well, or something, but I forgot that too. His claim rang hollow, that much I recall. I asked him for some bourbon, but I think he’d finished it already. As he regaled me with endless stories about his youth his nose pulsated red. I slept while he attended some chores. The sound of a lawnmower awoke me. It was morning, and I ascertained I had slept the remainder of the previous day and for the full night. I felt refreshed, yet famished. My mind was at a level of clarity experienced not for weeks. The old man was aghast to find me that very morning in the kitchen eating rye toast and drinking gin. I assured him it was merely because my stomach would find anything heavier most likely disagreeable. I invited him to join me, and was reassured when he fetched a decanter and did just that. I felt totally blasted by ten o’clock. Never had I attained such levels of drunkenness! My brief period of rest had defeated some of my ever mounting tolerance. The old man suggested we go out for a night on the town and proffered sunglasses to perpetuate the illusion. He seemed quite vigorous. I declined, asserting that my strength had yet to reach its usual appeal. I reasoned that such an excursion was precisely what I had been trying to avoid by walking endlessly. It seemed evident there was something from which I had been trying to escape... We instead sat in the parlor and talked of friends dead or soon to be gone.