Point and Shoot, Florida (YU)--Heap and Brenda watched a program on the Carter Presidency on C-SPAN.

He was glad Carter got to hear what people thought of him while he was alive. Gerald Ford had to die to be publicly appreciated.

Heap looked at all the people on the panel, thought about the jobs they'd held, working their way up.

The arc of his career was flat. He had developed in isolation.

No one knew how good he was because no one could know: his entire oeuvre had been suppressed.

And he sounded kind of shrill, when he sang his own praises. He sounded nuts.

He sounded like Little Richard in the GEICO commercial.

But he'd been at it since Gerald Ford was president. Working at it hammer and tongs. In isolation.

That would make a person nuts.

Why wasn't he up there in a tuxedo?

Why wasn't he nominated for an Oscar?

We sit in the present, regarding two eternities: the future and the past.

One writes a book, between the last book and the next.

Heap's next book was called JACK THE RAVER: A LIFE ON PAPER.

He would divide it into stages.

He made notes to himself about the contents of each section.