“The sleepwalker would be well-advised to search the past for the source of his problem.”

“The sleepwalker would be well-advised to search the past for the source of his problem.” is the central wording of an anonymous note sent to Dominick Corvaisis. Paired with the assertion that a secret is buried in his past, it reframes his sleepwalking as a possible consequence of an unknown earlier event and gives his investigation a direction without revealing its answer.

Wording and delivery

The message appeared on a single typed page inside a plain white envelope with neither signature nor return address. It arrived among Dominick’s mail while he was eating at The Cottage in Laguna Beach, California, on the morning an advance copy of his first novel had also reached him. The contrast between the excitement of receiving his book and the note’s unsettling suggestion makes the message a distinct interruption in an otherwise ordinary breakfast.

The note reads: “The sleepwalker would be well-advised to search the past for the source of his problem. That is where the secret is buried.” Its second sentence sharpens the first: this is not merely general advice about sleepwalking, but a claim that an undisclosed secret lies behind Dominick’s condition. The note does not specify a memory, event, or person, leaving its most consequential assertion unverified.

Dominick’s response

Dominick read the message repeatedly—at the restaurant, and again in his car after leaving. The envelope’s postmark was double-struck and badly smeared, so he could not tell whether it had been mailed from Laguna Beach or another city. The paper was ordinary, widely available stock, providing no distinctive mark that could identify its source.

The message unsettled him enough that he nearly took a Valium from his jacket pocket. He stopped before taking it, reasoning that he would need a clear mind to consider the note’s implications, and returned the tablet to his pocket. Later, as he stared into the night, the urge for Valium returned, but he resisted again. The note therefore prompts not only speculation about his past but a temporary refusal of the chemical escape he had been relying on.

Narrative significance

The note supplies a question rather than a solution. Dominick considers whether anyone else could know about his condition, then wonders what suppressed trauma or forgotten event might lie at its root. Those possibilities remain questions in this passage; the note itself establishes neither a particular trauma nor the identity or motive of its sender.

Its force comes from the gap between its confident wording and the evidence it provides. It directs Dominick backward, toward a past he cannot yet access or explain, while its anonymity and untraceable postmark prevent him from assessing who is guiding him. The phrase thus becomes both an incitement to investigate and a compact statement of the mystery surrounding his sleepwalking.