Chapter 5 Summary

In his tentative explorations, the narrator comes across two lions playing. He tries to avoid them and, in doing so, comes across a river, which is smooth but swift flowing. The water is so clear that he can count the pebbles in the riverbed. Nearby, a ghost is having a conversation with a solid person, which the narrator now calls a Bright Person. The ghost is the fat man with the cultured voice from the bus.

The ghost is addressing the Bright Person as "my dear boy" and speaking to him of his father. The Bright Person asks the ghost if he has brought his father, but the ghost says his father lives a great distance from the bus station and has been getting eccentric lately. The ghost reminds the Bright Person of his "incorrect" opinion held during life, that there is a...