Pages 9 to 14: In Quiet White-Tiled Basement Somewhere in Torontocanada.

(On page 11 a young Hal Incandenza has just eaten a big piece of mould - from his basement.)

"Reading requires quiet and the absence of thickness and weight,"

That's what I try to convince myself of.

Then, suddenly, the torn pages feel strange in my hands and I am horrified by the thought of The Carcass in my office.
Have I murdered a book?

Will the book-carcass start to smell up my office, if not my conscience?

Is it that smell like Hal's mould?

Why am I freaking out? Am I Hal, caving into the pressure of a school admissions interview and finding awful guilt?

What will The Abbot do when he finds out what I've done to the book he gifted me?

Will he come after me? Will he turn me in to the authorities?

Maybe I should read page 12 to see what becomes of Hal's memory of eating mould as a child.