31.  A feeling that I had run a terrible risk and now everything was going to be all right.

32.  A few clapped, but I think it was in gratitude for their drinks.

33.  A few cocktails later, enough to addle my memory, I found myself in bed with Bob.

34.  A few days later I found some use-them-once plastic hypodermics in the medicine cabinet.

35.  A few miles from the house where Irina and I live lies an old churchyard.

36.  A few minutes later I heard the splash of oars, and a rowing boat came into view manned by three crewmen.

37.  A few nights later I was woken by a noise at about two in the morning.

38.  A few weeks later I laid aside my steak knife for good.

39.  A few weeks later I was fired from my job at Hunter College.

40.  A few years ago my friend Tim Hult and I spent one steamy-hot and jet-lagged afternoon wandering aimlessly around Bangkok.