The narrator wakes up to find that the publisher has canceled his series. He's bummed because he's been working for the publisher for five years, and he doesn't want to give up his job. He wonders why the other publishers have all gone out of business, but he can't figure out what's going on. He figures out that the only thing that's keeping him going is the fact that he has a friend who's waiting to take him back to his old job as a doctor.