Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary

The narrator continues contemplating the meaning of his "two-timing evolution," providing detail about the circumstances of his birth and the reaction of his parents to his deformed right hand, a condition that does nothing to prevent him from becoming his mother's favorite.

We also, finally, meet a character face-to-face who is alluded to many times since page one: Vasco Miranda of Loutulium in Goa. The penniless artist is taken in by Aurora as her "pet," commissioned to paint murals of cartoon characters on the nursery walls in order to create a secular paradise for the children. Miranda befriends the narrator, helping him cope with his deformity and double-time pace of his physical development, anchoring him in accepting what is, as what must be.

Commissioned next, by Abraham, to paint a portrait of Aurora and newborn daughter Ina, Miranda produces a canvas...