I thought it was relief talking.

Part Fifteen: My Numbers

I understand it now, and what it was, was a door left open.

Because that is the thing about a man who has spent a decade quietly believing that the entire ordeal came out of his own body.

It does not go away when the problem is solved.

It goes underneath, and it waits, and it stays exactly as sharp as it was, and anybody who knows it is there can put a thumb on it at any time.

His mother knew it was there.