Michael doesn’t believe me, of course: he’s calling it a stress-induced hallucination, and is irritated that I have folded it into my old established refusal to explain the means of my escape from Alem Bekagn, which he has always assumed evidences a deep political connection or personal favour whose history must be worth the telling. But his irritation is ameliorated by the salient facts of the case, and by Annie’s most emphatic demand that he play nicely with his mad old dad.