Summary

The Flea Draws Blood

Back in New York, Smith is bogged down by jet lag and the feeling of the fog. She notices the cars driving by with primary colors. She thinks about writing to William Burroughs, a prominent figure in the Beat generation, and becomes preoccupied with memories of the Beat poets' wisdom. She ponders Burroughs’ identification with the ghost of a flea, and ends at the image of a boy in a white costume. She goes to her bookshelf and finds W. G. Sebald’s After Nature, which has the boy on the cover. And soon she is captured by its fictional world. She compares her books to portals.

Hill of Beans

Smith drank coffee on her own in Michigan, as Fred did not like it. She used a miniature version of her mother’s coffee...