Infinite Jest

by David Foster Wallace

The dark had a distanceless shape. The room’s ceiling might as well have been clouds. ‘Skkkkk.’ ‘Booboo?’ ‘Skk-kkk.’ ‘Mario.’ ‘Hal!’ ‘Were you asleep there, Boo?’ ‘I don’t think I was.’ ‘Cause I don’t want to wake you up if you were.’ ‘Is it dark or is it me?’ ‘The sun won’t be up for a while, I don’t think.’ ‘So it’s dark then.’ ‘Booboo, I just had a wicked awful dream.’ ‘You were saying “Thank you Sir may I have another” several times.’ ‘Sorry Boo.’ ‘Numerous times.’ ‘Sorry.’ ‘I think I slept right through it.’ ‘Jesus, you can hear Schacht snoring all the way across. You can feel the snores’ vibrations in your midsection.’ ‘I slept right through it. I didn’t hear you even come in.’ ‘Quite a nice surprise to come in and see the good old many-pillowed Mario-shape in his rack again.’ ‘…’ ‘I hope you didn’t move the bag back here just because it sounded like I might have been asking you. To.’ ‘I found somebody with tapes of old Psychosis, for until the return. I need you to show me how to ask somebody I don’t know to borrow tapes, if we’re both devoted.’ ‘…’ ‘Hey Hal?’ ‘Booboo, I dreamed I was losing my teeth. I dreamed that my teeth dry-rotted somehow into shale and splintered when I ate or spoke, and I was jettisoning fragments all over the place, and there was a long scene where I was pricing dentures.’ ‘All night last night people were coming up going where is Hal, have you seen Hal, what happened with CT and the urine doctor and Hal’s urine. Moms asked me where’s Hal, a...