THE HUNDRED-AND-FORTY-SECOND PAGE

Somehow, I surely fell asleep.

I awakened with a vague memory of a dream. Only in that way was I certain I had slept.

Whether I slept or not does not matter because suddenly I was wide awake.

The dog was barking as he bounded up the stairs to the second floor, then up to my bedroom on the top floor. I don’t recall he had ever been in the room, but he found me.

With a fierceness I’d never known, he pulled the comforter away, leaving me naked and shivering. The barking persisted as he attempted to jump up on the bed. The bark was so pervasive, so ubiquitous that I did not know what was bothering him. Of course, without my glasses I could see nothing through the skylight, but I could hear a roar increasing in volume. And I sensed--it was more a sense than vision--a flash of lights through the skylight.

There was no doubt the helicopter was back. I pulled on my jeans and found my moccasins. I slipped them on to my bare feet as I probed for my glasses.

Armed with vision, I looked up through the skylight. Oh, yes, oh, yes, indeed it was what I had sensed it to be and I had no doubt that the figure with dark glasses next to the pilot was My Editor. I should have had an adrenaline rush, but I only felt sick and faint.