03/30/01

I was home babysitting Mookie today. While he was down for a nap I went on the World Wide Web and read up a little more on the game of Cricket. I still have no idea how it's played even after reading for a half-hour. I was feeling a little anxious about practice tonight, then something happened that completely blew me away. This young dude appeared at the door, said he was researching Phil Palfrey's disappearance for a book. He said almost ten years ago he was the drummer in Phil's REM cover band, Spanking Time for Frankenstein. The minute he said this I know the guy was Roy-Roy. I knew about Roy-Roy from my own research on Phil's disappearance. But somehow I didn't want to let on to the guy I knew who he was already or that I had been doing my own work on the mystery. I don't know. Maybe that would be fucking creepy.

I've been reading the stories about the step-father, Hiram jumping from the bridge, and Phil's old girlfriend Bedelia being found murdered in the well, and I thought, you know, what the hell happened to the dude? You know? Then the police came around asking me about Phil and Bedelia when Phil was in the band, I thought, you know, this might be the book!

Why did you refer to Hiram as Phil's step-father? I ask anxiously.

Because Phil always said his biological father was a Thoreau, 'like the writer of Walden'. When I first started looking into things, I thought it was you, but now I understand you're his brother.

I'm not his brother! I stammer like a freak I think that's just insane! Phil is my nephew by marriage, that's all! Well, and a cousin too. . .but, you know. . .

Well the police seem to think you're his brother, from what I can gather.

The police (stroke, heart attack) seem to think what?!!!