Special Sub-Topic: "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 2 Click Here To Play: "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 2

The PLO, IRA, Gas Board, and British Nuclear Fuels all attempt to take credit for the explosion with which Chapter 1 had just ended. To what is the explosion eventually attributed?

Nonlinear, catastrophic structural exasperation.. As one junior cabinet minister expressed it, "the check-in desk had just got 'fundamentally fed up with being where it was.'"

Was anybody killed in the explosion?

n. Original reports of casualty figures soared before settling down on lots of boo-boos, a few hospitalizations for this and that, and one missing check-in girl. Oh, and lots of destroyed luggage.

American Kate Schecter was unconscious when the chapter opened, busily examining the contents of cabin trunks in her subconscious. About a tenth of the cabin trunks contained "vivid and often painful or uncomfortable memories of her past life." What did the other nine tenths of the trunks contain?

penguins. Kate was surprised by this. She hadn't expected penguins.

The contents of the bedside bowl in Kate's hospital room contrast strongly later with the contents of a bedside bowl in another hospital room. What did Kate's bowl contain?

A single banana.. There was also a single banana in the bedside bowl of the large, Nordic man.

At what time of day did Kate finally emerge from her coma?

The wee hours of the morning.. She woke shortly after 3:00 in the morning, to be more precise.

What did Kate get up and go off in search of?

A lavatory.. She thought of ringing for the nurse, but stubbornly decided to seek out the lavatory on her own.

Kate took off on her quest, only to stumble upon the unconscious figure of the large, Nordic man. He had two extremely odd items in his room. One was a sledgehammer. The other was a vending machine. What kind?

Coca-Cola & Coke & Coca Cola. This out-of-order vending machine turned up in a lot of odd places throughout the story.

The sight of the large, Nordic man, along with the sledgehammer and the vending machine, made Kate woozy. Then she heard noises she originally attributed to approaching unconsciousness and another visit with the contents of her cabin trunks. She did eventually figure out where the sound was coming from. Where?

Behind the window curtains.. The sound was "a heavy, beating, scratching noise, a muffled fluttering."

Kate bravely, perhaps foolhardily, uncovered the source of the sound. What was it?

eagle & an eagle. An eagle with large, concentric circles marking its wings, oddly enough.

The source of the sound sent Kate fleeing from the room. This was too much activity in her weakened state, and she fainted. Kate was returned to her bed. What happened to the large, Nordic man?

He was hauled off.. To be specific, the large, Nordic man was hauled off by "a disturbingly short figure in a worryingly long white doctor's coat" who wheeled the big man out, then returned for the Coca-Cola machine.