Megan shook her head and said she was just kidding.

“Well, Albert sent me an email a few weeks ago and said ‘Man, I really liked your writing in class, and I’m looking for a new staff member.’ Apparently one of his staffers just got into school in California, so he offered me his job. It’s full time. I don’t have benefits yet, but he said he’s going to work on it.”

“That’s so cool,” said Randy.

“What does Albert do?” said Megan.

“He runs an online design magazine. It’s one of the only local design magazines that really matters on a national level.” He turned to Randy and said, “You know how stuff is around here.”

“So, are you writing about design or are you . . . designing for this design magazine?” asked Megan.

“Oh, Albert likes to do most of the design himself, so I’m writing.”

“Oh, right, you said he said he liked your writing from  class.”

“Yeah,” said David. “Actually, the only person he lets help him out with the design is Carrie.”

The night plummeted on. Randy and David talked about books they’d been reading and design techniques they liked. They laughed together about mutual acquaintances. Megan drank and smoked and thought about Carrie a little. She thought, I read books and do things, too. But not the same things, and not the same books. Occasionally she interjected, but the things she said were answered with polite questions and did not fit well into the flow of the conversation, so she mostly sat back and tried to relax. She must have spaced out. When she came to, David was saying, “Toothpaste, hacksaw, People Magazine, a bag of carrots, red gym socks, Jean Luc Picard, tomato paste, cardboard cut out of Austin Powers, CD player, toothpicks.”

“Whoa, cool,” said Randy.

“What are you doing again?” asked Megan.

“A Memory Palace,” said Randy.

“It’s a medieval memory technique. If you need to remember a list of things, what you do is pick a place that you remember well, like your childhood home or your office or your apartment, and you make a narrative. Like, I walk up my front steps and I step on a tube of toothpaste and I get toothpaste all over my foot, so I pick up a hacksaw and I cut off my foot. Then I open my mailbox and see a copy of People Magazine that has a photo of me cutting off my foot on the cover. My landlord is standing in my entryway and he offers me a carrot, and I notice he’s wearing red gym socks,” said David. He kept talking through his Memory Palace, but Megan was somewhere else.

“Can I try one?” asked Randy.

“Yeah, absolutely.” David took a piece of paper and started writing a list.

“This is awesome,” said Randy.

Memory Palace. Megan opened another beer. She said, “This is awesome,” in her head to mock Randy. Then she whispered, “Memory Palace.”