The note

The note is a prewritten document central to the practical preparations for the friend’s planned death. Kept in a drawer of her nightstand and lacking only a date, it makes an otherwise private plan materially present while showing that one final step has been left incomplete.

Preparation and Physical Presence

The note has already been composed and placed in the friend’s nightstand drawer. Its location makes it part of the intimate surroundings of her home, but also keeps it out of sight. The missing date is its only stated omission: the document is prepared, yet not finalized. The narrator describes this as part of the friend’s meticulous planning.

Role in the Plan

The narrator’s former partner warns that the friend has to leave a note and urges the narrator to take precautions so that no evidence could implicate her in the plan or suggest that she assisted. He also anticipates police questioning and tells her to stick to a script. The note therefore has a practical role in the plan, while its existence intensifies the narrator’s exposure to scrutiny. The passage does not disclose what the note says or establish that it is ultimately dated or left; it remains, at this point, a prepared document awaiting its final mark.