 Why doesn't the narrator care about having eaten in the past day and a half?
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] I admit it: I didn't know if I was coming or going—but I know that if I stuck to the old man, I was a comer ... even if he was a goner! "Tonight," Doc was saying in his old voice that was as crackled and important as parchment, "tonight Man will reach the Moon. The golden Moon and the silver ship, symbols of greed. "Sure," the man agreed severely, prying a little worriedly at Doc's arthritic fingers that were clamped on his collar. I came alongside and carefully started to lever the old man loose, one finger at a time. If a half dozen winos in Seattle hadn't helped me get them loose, Doc and I would have been wanted for the murder of a North American Mountie. It was easier this night and that made me afraid. Doc's thin frame, layered with lumpy fat, was beginning to muscle-dance against my side. "'Memory Jump,' you mean. All my great-grandfathers have it. I told the human no, thanks, and walked Doc toward the flophouse three doors down. It had happened a few times right after I first found him, but now it was worse. I tried not to think about it and helped Doc through the fly-specked flophouse doors. The tubercular clerk looked up from the gaudy comics sections of one of those little tabloids that have the funnies a week in advance. "Fifteen cents a bed," he said mechanically. The clerk's hand fell on the coin and slid it off into the unknown before I could move, what with holding up Doc. "Had a quarter all along and yet you Martian me down to twenty cents." "You don't have any nickel. You don't have any quarter, not if I say so. He didn't scare me, but Doc was beginning to mumble and that did scare me. I laid Doc out on the gray-brown cot and put his forearm over his face to shield it some from the glare of the light bulb. My shaggy scalp still smarted from the alcohol I had stolen from a convertible's gas tank to get rid of Doc's and my cooties. It stopped hurting, but I knew it would begin if I moved. I stared at a jagged cut-out nude curled against a lump of dust and lint, giving it an unreal distortion.
 He is preoccupied by his stronger need for coffee
 He does not actually need to eat to survive  He is an evolved human who does not actually need to eat to survive  Water is more important than food, so he needs to find that first  He is preoccupied by his stronger need for coffee