there were a few little shreds after that - wishing colleen , the department secretary , a nice st paddy 's day , grabbing a boston phoenix from the newspaper box outside the building , dropping a quarter into the saxophone case of a skinhead just over the bridge on the cambridge side , feeling sorry for the guy because he was wearing a light sweater and the wind coming off the charles was sharp - but mostly what he remembered after making that stack of giveaway books was darkness .