I am holed up in my sister’s friend Cat’s basement, in Brooklyn: a spacious underground lair where time is precise, artificial, and indistinct, weather nonexistent, and the outside world remote. The windows would show me snow, falling steadily and silently, were I positioned to look out of them. MJ is in bed with her leg propped up, recuperating, watching videos. I’m writing code and occasionally running errands.

Later today I have an appointment at the Apple store in Soho; MJ’s laptop has some problem with its speakers. I intend to buy an iPod while I’m there – my first digital music device, in fact – which should keep me sane on the flight to Australia, and serve as a replacement for the Rover’s CD player when I get back.