Information.

Yes. We’re here on a need-to-know basis. There is no machinery in evolution for informing us of the existence of phenomena that do not affect our survival. What is here that we dont know about we dont know about. We think.

Would that be the supernatural?

I think it would just be the whereof.

The whereof.

The whereof one cannot speak.

Wittgenstein.

Very good. You’re going to run out of breadcrumbs.

The familiars. Now that they’ve taken a leave of absence does this come as a relief?

God knows. Maybe you imagine I always had it in my power to dismiss them. Or even that they were here at my invitation. And if that were true would I even know it.

Why not?

Maybe because inviting chimeras into your house is a knottier business than inviting neighbors in for tea. Or inviting them to leave. Of course having been asked to leave, the neighbors know that they’re not coming back. Which leaves them with a greater freedom to make off with the silver. What can a chimera make off with? I dont know. What did he bring? What did he bring that he might very well leave behind? The fact that he may be composed of vapor doesnt mean that when he leaves your house it will be the same as before he arrived.

Did you ever call the Thalidomide Kid that to his face?

Yes. Once.

What did he say?

He said: Jesus, Jessica. You really take the cake.

Did he really say that?

He really said that.

Do you have a relationship with your family now?

I only have my grandmother.

I thought you had an uncle?

I do. But he’s nuttier nor I am. I think she’s going to have to put him in a home. Lately he’s taken to defecating in odd and difficult to locate places. He managed somehow or other to shit in the ceiling lamp in the kitchen. For instance. I talk with her on the telephone. If rarely. She considers it an extravagance. When she was growing up in Tennessee only rich people had telephones. I have relatives in Rhode Island on my father’s side but I dont really know them.

Why is that?

They thought that my father had married beneath himself. They thought we were all just a bunch of hicks.

Does that bother you?

No. They’re a pack of fucking idiots. I guess that means it bothers me, right? I dont know. I never think about them.

When did you last see your grandmother?

About three months ago.

Do you intend to see her again?

You keep fishing, dont you?

I just wondered if you were fond of her.