Short intro this week, just a quick reminder to order your copy of you feel it just below the ribs,

a new novel by me, Jeffrey Kramer, and Janina Matheson, creators of this very podcast.

Yes, that's right, within the wires. The book is available in North America,

wherever you get your books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Outside of North America,

we recommend book depository for international shipping. Check out within the wires.com for more info.

Okay, see that was short. Here is episode 8.

It's 5.15. Monday, October 29th. I haven't really slept.

Growny is awake too. She's doing better than me.

Her blood pressure is 112 over 72. Resting heart rate is 64. Her skin

tone is healthy, but she looks great, actually. She's not glowing or talkative,

but she looks awake, alive, more alive than me. It's a low bar, I've said, if you're looking or feeling good.

I didn't get to sleep because I thought I heard a mouse in my room last night.

This little scratch, scratch, scratch, along the floorboards. It was torturous.

Not consistent enough to become white noise, never leaving along enough silence till we fall asleep.

Just a little bit, and then nothing. Then a few minutes later, again, I got up to try to find it,

but in the silence I didn't know where to look, and the sound kept moving around me.

I tried to push through it, but it was driving me up the wall. The sound was quiet,

but it seemed to drive right into the center of my brain. I couldn't even read.

I tried to go through a breathing exercise, just one of the normal ones you do growing up.

Breathing slowly in and out, feeling the oxygen as it saturates your lungs, sensing its travel

through your veins, down your arms and legs, letting the feel of it lift you until you were floating

inside your head. Nothing. Scratch, scratch, scratch, pause, scratch, scratch, scratch.

...