Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

At the laundromat, the narrator discovers all the dryers are occupied. While he waits his turn, he wishes he brought a book and feels like he is wasting his last hours of consciousness in the real world. He decides he wants to buy clothes for dinner. At 12:50 p.m., a dryer opens up, and he puts the girl’s clothes in it. After women in the laundromat give him looks about the all-pink load, he leaves and walks down the street past various shops under an umbrella. He buys cigarettes, smokes, and buys pastries. In his usual video shop, he asks the woman to replay the fight scene on the screens. She does so in exchange for a pastry and invites him to stay and watch the rest of the movie. He explains that he has to go get his laundry.

After fetching the dry clothes, he goes back to the apartment. The girl is asleep in his bed. As he looks around the kitchen, he thinks about the past eight years and his wife and cat leaving. He also doubts the Professor’s claims of immortality of the mind. However, he wanted to be someone else when he was younger, so he thinks the other world in his mind might be better than the life he is currently living.