Summary

“drownings” begins: “This happened and it didn’t happen” (153), referring to the story of a man named Arkady throwing a key into a fire. This was his first step of a plan to pull himself out of debt. The second step is to kidnap the daughter of a local tyrant, called either Eirini the Second or Eirini the Fair. The tyrant had ordered Eirini the First, the daughter’s mother, stoned for adultery. However, when a man rumored to be her lover and resembling Eirini the Second appeared to plead for her, the tyrant had Eirini the First returned to the palace. The tyrant had the man drowned. The tyrant at one point also drowned Arkady’s mother and father.

At the grocery store, Arkady runs into a man Giacomo. They move in together and have a dog named Leporello. One day, Arkady accidentally...