Hal's drive to Natick: the deepening withdrawal, the mnemonic prodigy intact, "My name's Mike"

pivotal · 17 Nov YDAU, ~1720h

• When: 17 Nov YDAU, late afternoon (arrives Q.R.S. ~1720h for a 1730h meeting)
• What: With no last class, Hal rushes drills, skips supper, and takes the E.T.A. tow truck ~50 clicks to Quabbin Recovery Systems in Natick to check out a Tuesday males-only meeting from the Ennet House booklet. He hasn't used since the 30-day condonation; what drives him is the "horrific way his head's felt, increasingly, since he abruptly Abandoned All Hope" — a chainsaw-voiced head that won't let up, "24/7's of feeling wretched and bereft," nightmares and saliva. Crucially the withdrawal has NOT touched his lexical/eidetic gift: he can still summon a "mental Xerox" of anything he's read (etymology of "Anonymous," AA's history), the effects being "more like emotional/salivo-digestive." En route he rehearses a fake identity into the rearview: "My name's Mike."