In the latest installment of Lethe in Spain, the Director calls the Senora's apartment with an unfavorable piece of news. Lethe returns to his room where he longingly looks over the edge of the balcony and tries to imagine his future in Spain.
There is a puzzling quotation that opens Herman Hesse's early novel, Demian:
I wanted only to live in accord
with the promptings of my true self.
Why was that so very difficult?
In the next chapter to the Novel of Life, Lethe rides through the city of Madrid in a speeding car and ends up at Javier's parent's condo, where the Spaniards gather to celebrate.
When Lethe refuses to return home to the States, the Director of the study abroad program offers to find him another Senora. Lethe begins to fantasize about his new Senora while his old Senora imagines his departure.
This week the Novel of Life brings us to glittering Las Vegas, where Lethe grows anxious about returning to the Backpacker's Inn with the older man he has been hanging out with. In a desperate move, he flees from a poker table and runs through a labyrinthine casino at breakneck speed.
This week's chapter of The Novel of Life takes us to Madrid, Spain, where Lethe Bashar follows a street up to the top of a hill and discovers a small gathering of festive Spaniards.
Lethe sometimes leaves the Senora' apartment at night. He has a habit of going out to buy hashish. On this night however he sticks around the neighborhood and wanders the streets nearby. Upon witnessing the Spaniards, Lethe is struck by a longing to connect with people his age.