#faculties

It was a long time before X could set the note aside, let alone lift Esmé’s father’s wristwatch out of the box. When he finally did lift it out, he saw that its crystal had been broken in transit. He wondered if the watch was otherwise undamaged, but he hadn’t the courage to wind it and find out. He just sat with it in his hand for another long period. Then, suddenly, almost ecstatically, he felt sleepy.

  You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac - with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

‘For Esmé - with Love and Squalor’, J.D. Salinger

(1950)