“Sooooo …” Amy asked, “how do you know when it’s working?”

I said, “You just, uh, start noticing things. it’s hard to explain. Like bits of radio signal coming in through the static.”

With that, a thought passed through my head, a flash like a shooting star. Pro wrestling was real. But not real in the sense that we perceive reality. It was more real then reality. Then, I worked out pi to four thousand decimal places and realized that if anyone ever drew a truly perfect circle it would actually look like a straight line in our eyes. I looked at the silver pill canister and realized it was more than four thousand years old. Or less than four seconds.

I said to John, “You know that if you walked around the world, your hat would travel thirty-one feet farther than your shoes?”

John said, “I dunno, Dave, but before we make a bomb I have to shave half the dog.”

I nodded. He got up, called Molly and herded her into my bathroom. I wondered when the sauce would take effect.