Content Warning: This section references existential dread, disaster and its aftermath, and emotional and psychological distress.

An unnamed college acquaintance remembers Mitchell Zukor. Mitchell is ordinary looking with blonde hair and an average build. The acquaintance characterizes Mitchell as brilliant but “mad,” obsessively studying the statistics possibilities of catastrophe.

The narrator dispels the rumor that Mitchell predicted the Puget Sound Earthquake, claiming that he was with Mitchell the day of the earthquake. He and Mitchell had class together, but the lecture was interrupted with the news that an earthquake devastated the city of Seattle. The students watched the catastrophe, and Mitchell was the only one who noticed another student, Elsa Bruner, had collapsed. Mitchell called the paramedics and explained that Elsa had a heart condition called Brugada that meant her heart could stop at any moment. Mitchell told his friend he learned this peeking in her file when they were both at the medical clinic. Mitchell had never spoken to Elsa but felt overwhelming sympathy for her condition. By alerting authorities, Mitchell saved Elsa’s life on the day of the earthquake, but they did not speak again until many years later.