Although the mystery man knows that he fell, he does not know from where, into what, or even why.

The man continues to walk down the streets before pausing at the edge of a puddle and peering into it. For a brief moment, instead of his face, he sees the image of a woman’s face. He continues on his way, but before turning the corner he hears a woman advertising flowers and announcing that she is going out of business.

After the mystery man turns the corner, a malnourished cat hisses at him before the scene to several yards ahead, where an immigrant attempts to return a rented barrel organ to its owner.

There are a couple things we can draw from this page: (1) A potential first reference to Sola when the man sees a woman’s face in the puddle and (2) the Old Quarter seems to be a pretty dismal, hopeless place. The fact that the mystery man (maybe) saw Sola in the puddle could indicate that they were predisposed to being together again in the future. In addition, A flower (symbol of gratitude and affection) vendor going out of business and a an encounter with a hostile, malnourished cat (sometimes a symbol of bad luck) sets the mood as hopeless, and could be a possible indication of the mystery man’s fate. It seems as though Straka is trying to set a scene in which positive values such as gratitude and affection have no place.

Jen asks:

You’re not from around here, right? California maybe?

How’d you guess?

Eric probes at Jen’s future. He writes:

The question remains: What does J. want??

I have no idea. For 4 years I’ve done what I’m supposed to do (with, OK, more than a few late night exceptions). Go to class, work, study, hangout. I don’t even remember what I like.

Lastly, Jen makes an interesting comment on one of her older notes.

She initially wrote, in connection with the falling debate on the previous page,

too much death-by-falling in the world of Straka to which she later replies:

Can’t believe how flippant I was about this. It’s so easy not to think about how the bad things that happen to people are bad things that happen to PEOPLE.