How I Got Three Zip Codes

A submarine torpedoes the sun, and it sinks into the waters of the Gulf.  An old man reflects on the various ways to begin an article or catch a fish. His grandson, the author, deduces that one such way is by dramatic incident.

The old man recalls seeing a man lose his head by machete in a Mexican cantina. He explains that the headless man stumbled into a bar and poured a shot of whiskey into his shirt pocket before falling dead. The narrator loses interest in his grandfather’s story, wondering how to begin his article and staring at a naked woman nearby.  

The author etches the words “How I Got Three Zip Codes” into the sky and begins to tell his grandfather of his addresses across Illinois.  The old man asks the narrator to manipulate the numbers, finding his grandson’s explanations strange.  He wonders how much the author will be paid for his story.