Part Two, Artifices, The South Summary

A man has just come into possession of a copy of The Thousand and One Nights and is so excited to read it that he walks into a door and cuts his forehead. The cut becomes infected and the man is made to enter the hospital in order to treat the dangerous infection. When the man is finally released from the hospital, he immediately sets out to spend the rest of his convalescence at his family ranch in the South. On the train ride, the man is so happy to be outside of the hospital that he spends most of the ride staring at the passing scenery. When the man finally approaches his stop, he is told he must get off sooner than expected because of a change in the train stations.

The man gets...