Chapter 2: Pappachi's Moth

Time: December 1969

Event: Chacko invited Margaret Kochamma (Chacko's ex-wife, and her husband, Joe, died in a car accident) and Sophie Mol to Ayemenem.

"The sun shone through the Plymouth window directly down at Rahel. She closed her eyes and shone back at it. Even behind her eyelids the light was bright and hot. The sky was orange, and the coconut trees were sea anemones waving their tentacles, hoping to trap and eat an unsuspecting cloud. A transparent spotted snake with a forked tongue floated across the sky. Then a transparent Roman soldier on a spotted horse. The strange thing about Roman soldiers in the comics, according to Rahel, was the amount of trouble they took over their armor and their helmets, and then, after all that, they left their legs bare. It didn't make any sense at all. Weatherwise or otherwise." (79)

「陽光透過普利茅斯的車窗直射瑞海兒。她閉起眼睛反射回去。即使在眼瞼後方，光線仍舊明亮炎熱。天空呈現橘色，椰子樹像伸出觸手的海葵，希望誘捕吞食一朵沒有起疑的雲。一條透明帶有斑點的蛇，吐著分岔的舌頭飄過天空。然後是一個透明的羅馬士兵騎著斑點的馬匹。瑞海兒認為，漫畫裡的羅馬士兵有些奇怪，他們花很多時間穿上甲冑與頭盔，最後卻讓雙腳赤裸。這根本不合理。無論是不是從天氣的角度來看。」