Summary

In the prologue to Part 2, the author describes how his mother named him after Saint Francis of Assisi, renowned for (among other things) his affinity with animals. The author recounts one of the stories associated with Saint Francis – how he befriended a dangerous, violent wolf, and came to an agreement that the wolf would no longer terrorize a village in exchange for being cared for by the villages. “Thou shalt no longer suffer hunger … as it is hunger which has made thee do so much evil" (82).

The author visits a dentist, who tells him that he has been grinding his teeth, and that a common cause of teeth grinding is stress. The dentist’s questions about his work, and how much stress that work might cause, lead the author to reveal that he has just moved from work in the field...