Status Updates From Heilige der Trümmer (Gerald...

"I dared hardly stir out of the Belgian's flat for fear of being buttonholed by complete strangers demanding I cure symptoms so disgusting I marvelled they could still be alive. For the first time ever I began to feel a sneaking degree of sympathy for the late Jesus Christ, who must have encountered similar problems-"

Samper finds a new appreciation for Marta's hovel:
"
Given its new-found solitude it even looks faintly desirable. Only I know its fungoid interior will be concealing heaps of unironed laundry and quantities of lethal Voynovian delicacies such as shonka, a sausage that induces paralysis, as well as its owner's flea market cosmetics with names like Randy Minx.
"

"Ideally I would like an additional dish of sweet beetles for my diners to crunch on - probably the candy bug 'Scarabaeus gastromellifer' that Guatemalan Indians give their boys as a reward for not crying during circumcision, an operation performed by the village shaman using his or her teeth."

When we last left Samper he was watching his house tumble into a Tuscan void through eyes clouded by hallucinogenic mushrooms he served to a dinner party. Now he is babysitting and pulling wind chimes out of his hair.