In the story's eighth, ninth and tenth chapters, the narrator describes Mary Hepburn's relationship with her late husband, Roy, in his final months. Regrettably, Roy, who is afflicted by an inoperable brain tumor, loses his job only a short while before Mary is to lose hers. Having lost both his work and autonomy, Roy vests hope in "The Nature Cruise of the Century", or rather, "what he was staying alive for" (Pg. 37, L.10). His grasp of reality gradually loosens, to the extent that he comes to believe his four year old dog was present for atomic bomb tests that took place in 1946. On his deathbed, Roy reveals that his greatest regret was that that he had not reproduced. At Roy's behest, Mary swears to remarry as soon as she is able, as well as to board the Bahia de Darwin for "The Nature Cruise of the Century".
In the eleventh chapter, the narrator introduces Adolf von Kleist, the Captain of the Bahia de Darwin who is said to become "the ancestor of every human being on the face of the earth today" (Pg. 49, L.25). The narrator also touches upon the relationship between Zenji and Hisako Hiroguchi, who will come to spawn a child, Akiko, who will bear a "pelt like a fur seal's" (Pg. 58, L.22). Zenji has invented both the Gokubi and the Mandarax, advanced translating machines that we are told will come to serve as a nuisance for the inhabitants of Santa Rosalia.
The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters follow the business relationship between Zenji Hiroguchi and Andrew Macintosh, both of whom we are told are soon to die. Macintosh is looking to accrue property in Ecuador.
-Utah
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