To prove that a given set of presumptions implies a contemplated conclusion, prove that the premises are at variance with the negation of that conclusion. Logic was simple enough to employ and understand, but hard to make useful. The rules were always clear, exacting, but had little to do with reality. I sat there on the cold bench trying to reason to our next move.

“Do you have any ideas?” I asked Eigen.

“No,” she said.

“Are you cold?”

“Yes.” She pushed closer to me.

“Let’s find a place to rest.”

We crossed M Street and walked toward the waterfront. The desk clerk at the Georgetown Inn was upset that I wanted to pay cash for a room.

“I will need a credit card for incidentals,” she said.

“What are incidentals?” I asked.

“Room service, movies.”

“We don’t want room service or movies. I want to pay cash.”

“We’re not set up to accept cash.”

As I stood there, I thought of Bill Clinton. “Okay,” I said, “I’ll use my card.” I gave her my debit card.

“Whew,” she said. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to help you, Mr. Kitu.”

“Two beds, please,” I said.

“Of course. We do have a wonderful selection of movies.”

“Terrific.”

“You’re lucky we have a room ready. Check-in is usually at three.”

“It feels good to be lucky,” I said.

“Do you need help with your bags?”

“We don’t have bags,” Eigen said.

“I see.” She gave us the key cards and we walked to the elevators.

“Why did you change your mind about the credit card?” Eigen asked.

“I’m trying to send a signal to Bill Clinton.”

4

I lay on the bed nearer the window while Eigen stepped into the shower. Neither of us had uttered Trigo’s name. I felt that I had done the correct and right thing. I believed he was safe with Leon Coltrane and that Leon Coltrane was safe with him. I closed my eyes and wondered who would advise me in my dreams.

Th square root of two is not a rational number, so says the theorem. The proof is rationally boring, as proofs go. The theorem does not prove that the square root of two is a real number. The beauty of this was in the reaction of the Pythagoreans who discovered it—shock. I loved the notion that anyone would be so moved by a bit of number theory. Shocked. In my dream I had wandered into a truck stop at a typical freeway exit called Metempsychosis. Truck drivers ate chili and drank beer and watched other trucks roll by on the dark highway outside.

Eigen was a waitress. She stopped at a booth and spoke to four truckers. “What in the h-e-l-l do you want?”

“How is the pie?” asked a man.

“Calculated to fifty places,” she said.

“I’ll have the square root of two,” another man said.

“Oh, come on,” Eigen said. “Let us assume that the square root of two is rational. That means that there exist integers p and q such that …” She gave them the proof. “Since 2\1 is false, so is our assumption that the square root of two is a rational number.”