Hal at the Inner-Infant meeting
The issue’s the horrific way his head’s felt, increasingly, since he abruptly Abandoned All Hope. It wasn’t just nightmares and saliva. It was as if his head perched on the bedpost all night now and in the terribly early A.M. when Hal’s eyes snapped open immediately said Glad You’re UP I’ve Been Wanting To TALK To You and then didn’t let up all day, having at him like a well-revved chain-saw all day until he could finally try to fall unconscious, crawling into the rack wretched to await more bad dreams. 24/7’s of feeling wretched and bereft.
Context
Why Hal drives fifty clicks to what he thinks is an NA meeting: not craving, but a head that's turned torturer. The mind-as-chainsaw is the first full description of the interior the late scenes will map from the inside; the flat fragment "24/7's of feeling wretched and bereft" (as written) is its keynote.