Okay, yes, I thought that too—like maybe there is some kind of uncontrolled digital bleed over between texts, like a computer hiccup, but that’s the thing: these are printed lines, but I don’t really believe that they were printed in the text when it came out. I bought all these brand new, they all came still in the shrink wrap. I checked them all, and there was no streak-writing in any of them. Nothing! But now, there it is!

I thought of that too! I used different phones, I used cameras, I used video, I even did super 8, and the results were consistent no matter what kind of device I used. My eyes, any camera, will give you the same reading, even on fresh, antique videotape, even on fresh, virgin film. So, it’s not in the printer itself and it isn’t in the machines, and it sure as hell isn’t just in my head. That leaves what—it is in the text, and it is placed there, printed on the page there, after I bought it and opened it, right there in my house! My house is pretty isolated, you know, and I’m not a slob. I don’t leave books and things just lying around any old place where anybody could come along and mess with them. I’m very vigilant. But there’s been no sign, just no sign at all of anything out of the ordinary.

I know you doubt me, right? This could all be some kind of hoax. I could have doctored the printing, whatever. But use your own phone or camera or whatever, pick any text you like, go ahead! You will start to find the hidden print too. Am I going around tampering with every book in the world? Every phone and camera? Or is someone else doing it?

Well, I’m too much of a scientist, even if you think I’m crazy, to start jumping to conclusions. But I do have a hypothesis, if you want to hear it. Or are you humoring me?

I don’t think this is some kind of conspiracy. That is not to say that there might not be an element of conspiracy to it, and maybe these are coded messages or something, but, even assuming the means presented themselves, who would try to communicate like this, through a few words scrambled across pages and pages of text? You only get a letter every couple of pages using this technique; repeating “alone” three times took nearly twenty pages. I grant nobody would be likely to stumble across these messages, but surely, anyone with clandestine business to transact is going to want a faster, more copious form of communication? Who would have time to flip through a whole 100-page book for a message that would be at most maybe 40 characters? A very short sentence?