In the chap­ter titled “Free­dom Again,” the nar­ra­tor recounts his brief arrest along­side oth­ers in a house, which occurred in an unmarked office with­in the Empire State Build­ing. Thanks to the inter­ven­tion of his “Blue Fairy God­moth­er,” he is released with­in an hour. As he steps back onto the side­walk, he expe­ri­ences a moment of paral­y­sis, not due to guilt, loss, or any emo­tion­al tur­moil. Rather, he reflects that he has trained him­self to dis­miss such feel­ings, hav­ing learned to live with­out regret, desire, loathing, or expec­ta­tions from a high­er pow­er.

What tru­ly caus­es him to freeze is the real­iza­tion that he lacks any rea­son or moti­va­tion to move for­ward. For years, curios­i­ty was the dri­ving force behind his actions, but now that curios­i­ty has dimmed. He stands still, unsure of how long he has been frozen in this state, con­tem­plat­ing his lack of pur­pose.

Even­tu­al­ly, a police­man notices him and approach­es. The offi­cer asks if he is alright and points out that he has been stand­ing there for a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time. The nar­ra­tor acknowl­edges the inquiry but admits that he is nei­ther wait­ing for any­one nor has a rea­son to remain sta­t­ic. The police­man sug­gests that he should move on, prompt­ing the nar­ra­tor to com­ply and take a step for­ward into the unknown.

This brief inter­ac­tion with the police­man serves as a cat­a­lyst, nudg­ing him back into the flow of life after his momen­tary exis­ten­tial freeze. Despite the absence of emo­tion, the encounter empha­sizes the impor­tance of exter­nal prompts in over­com­ing stag­na­tion and encour­ages a sense of move­ment into an uncer­tain future. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the strug­gle of find­ing moti­va­tion in a seem­ing­ly indif­fer­ent world and the impact of brief human inter­ac­tions in rekin­dling one’s pur­pose.