One night as I was sitting and smoking excessively, doing nothing but wandering my mind and thoughts at my kitchen table, I heard a knock at my door. I opened the door. It was Ezekiel. "I’m just stopping by on my way to a hotel on Colfax," he said. "You got off the street?" I said. "No," he said; "but I know another homeless named James. He’s on SSI and he just got his check. He’ll spend it on hotel rooms till it’s gone."

I sat at my desk with my back awkwardly facing him and nervously tapped my cigarette end in the ashtray. Ezekiel sat on the edge of my bed behind me. There was really no cigarette ash to come off the cigarette. I took a drag and made some. "You’ve been thinking about all that has been revealed," said Ezekiel. "Yes," I said. "Can I ask you for one of those," he said, standing. I handed him a cigarette, then lit it with my own hands. "Thanks," he said. He stayed standing beside me. It had come so natural to hand him a cigarette when he asked that I didn’t stop to consider that I had never seen him smoking before. "I didn’t know you smoked," I said. "I do every few months," he said, "when I get the desire." My nervousness began to leave me and I began to daydream. After a few seconds I realized Ezekiel was toying with my locks. It seemed very natural. "How is it that we’ve never made love?" he said to break the silence. "If we did," I said, "it would have to be an extramarital affair." "Don’t tell me you’ve gotten married since we last saw each other," he said. I chuckled. He had by now stopped toying with my hair. "Some writers are married," I said, "and view their writing as an extramarital affair. But my writing gives me so much happiness, and I would be in such grief without it, I can only view it as a marriage." "Ever had anything published?" he said. "Not where I got paid anything," I said. "I bet before you got those things published for which you were paid nothing, you thought you would be perfectly happy if you got even that," he said. "Yes," I said, "but that doesn’t seem to satisfy me anymore."

"Well," he said, "are you going to ask me a question?"