he woke up after eleven and didn't go outside all day not even to his writing shack what did he do he watched late morning cartoons meant for children too young to go to school he ate bowls of cereal he watched his mother play dominoes he played dominoes with her for a little while until she was winning by such a margin it wasn't fun for either of them he went down to the basement to do his laundry he pulled the chain for the light and it turned on like magic electricity is like magic he said to himself he thought he would like to write that down but his implements were in the shack he'd already built up so much momentum inside inertia he thought what's the difference between inertia and momentum he asked himself as he hefted dirty clothes into the washer maybe inertia is the momentum of not moving he thought as he measured and poured the blue detergent into the drum momentum is the inertia of moving forward through time as he selected warm-cold on the dial and pulled it out to start the machine what do you think is the difference between inertia and momentum he asked his mother when he opened the door at the top of the stairs when you switch over your laundry could you bring up my underwear from the dryer she asked not looking up from her dominoes a thread of smoke curled from her cigarette and spread out on the ceiling