Einstein and Besso walk slowly down Speichergasse in the late afternoon. It is a quiet time of day. Shopkeepers are dropping their awnings; others are getting out their bicycles. From a second-floor window, a mother calls to her daughter to come home for dinner.

Einstein has been explaining to his friend Besso why he wants to know time. He says nothing of his dreams.

They will soon be at Besso’s house. Sometimes Einstein stays there through dinner, and Mileva has to come and get him, toting their infant. That happens when Einstein is possessed by a new project, as he is now, and all through dinner his leg will twitch under the table. Einstein isn’t good dinner company.