After ten minutes they started the meeting again and went around the room. People would say their names and say they were alcoholics and thank the speaker for his qualification, which is what they call the life story that he told. Then they would go on to talk about how they’d identified with the speaker, or recall some memory from their drinking days, or speak about some difficulty they were dealing with in the course of trying to lead a sober life. A girl not much older than Kim Dakkinen talked about problems with her lover, and a gay man in his thirties described a hassle he’d had that day with a customer at his travel agency. It made a funny story and got a lot of laughs.

One woman said, “Staying sober is the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is don’t drink, go to meetings, and be willing to change your whole fucking life.”

When it got to me I said, “My name is Matt. I’ll pass.”

The meeting ended at ten. I stopped at Armstrong’s on my way home and took a seat at the bar. They tell you to stay out of bars if you’re trying not to drink but I’m comfortable there and the coffee’s good. If I’m going to drink I’ll drink and it doesn’t matter where I am.

By the time I left there the early edition of the News was on the street. I picked it up and went back to my room. There was still no message from Kim Dakkinen’s pimp. I called his service again, which established that he had received my message. I left another message and said that it was important I hear from him as soon as possible.

I showered and put on a robe and read the paper. I read the national and international stories but I can never really focus on them. Things have to be on a smaller scale and happen closer to home before I can relate to them.

There was plenty to relate to. Two kids in the Bronx threw a young woman in front of the D train. She’d lain flat and, although six cars passed over her before the motorman got the train stopped, she’d escaped without injury.

Down on West Street, near the Hudson docks, a prostitute had been murdered. Stabbed, the story said.

A housing authority cop in Corona was still in critical condition. Two days ago I’d read how he’d been attacked by two men who hit him with lengths of pipe and stole his gun. He had a wife and four children under ten.