The Making of 'The Number 23' Page #3

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That was my father's rule.

On my eighth birthday,

I broke the rule.

Now I must admit that my

loneliness and obsession

With detective stories

had fueled fantasies.

So I'm not sure of all the details,

Except one.

The widow dobkins was dead.

It was a whole hour

before the doctor arrived,

And in that uncertain hour

My eight-year-old

mind raced.

I decided that the

widow dobkins was killed

By a man with a deranged mind,

A mind such as our town

had never seen before.

No one would be safe from

him, not even his loved ones.

Especially his loved ones.

Of course, a doctor later

concluded that it was suicide,

But I never believed it.

By then, my mind had been

opened to a whole new existence.

From this, a

detective was born--

Detective fingerling."

This has promise too.

Hey, there you are. What are you doing?

I'll clean this up later.

Filling your head

with nonsense, are you?

- Did you read this?

- Most of it.

- It's very creative.

- This fingerling guy.

Yeah, it's a cool name.

Yeah, what did you make of him?

I loved him at the-- Well,

at the beginning I did.

What do you mean at the beginning?

Well, he-- How far

have you gotten?

- Oh, two chapters.

- Oh.

Honey, will you move this ladder

for me, just right over here?

You know, honey, this fingerling

guy reminds me of my life.

It's so weird.

Like, it's like my childhood,

my memories, you know?

Will you hand me that blue paint?

- Here.

- Fingerling's nothing like you.

Oh, yeah, look at that?

"Fingerling at the zoo." My mother

read it to me when I was a kid.

I'm sure a lot of people

read that as a kid.

- Did you?

- No.

- Ha-Aa! - But you know what?

Every time I read a book,

It's like, the author stole a part

of me that I thought only I knew.

Someday I'm gonna write a book

and I'll do it to somebody else.

I don't know, hon.

It's-- It's just really

- Kind of strange.

- You know what?

There's a lot of neighborhoods

with houses just like yours,

With streets just like yours.

Yeah? With dogs next door?

Oh, your neighbor had a

dog. Well, that's shocking.

It wasn't called

alfie. It was called chief.

"Mis-Chief" my father called it.

He used to escape all the time.

That's why I became an a.C.O.

Fingerling's a detective.

I used to collect detective magazines.

And the widow next door, mrs. Dobkins,

Well, that's like my mom.

She died on my eighth birthday.

Look, I got freakin' goose bumps.

Honey, keep reading, okay?

Soon you will discover that

fingerling is nothing like you.

Somebody wrote a book about dad?

- No.

- Yes. Yes.

- How's school?

- Horrible.

Am I in it?

I mean, if the book's about dad,

Then I should have, like, a

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