Motif · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
The Chowder War
The quest between Cuba's Caribbean Kung Fu monk seals and Juego-de-maní land crabs, who mass in the south to release their 'grand emissions': a sneak attack Sister Ines turns into a war of attrition ('an armistice is nothing more than a delay… an overdue bill'), a beach of 'War is hell' corpses washed to Florida, crab sperm ruled a mob, and the death that opens hell. Failed; and then the answer to everything, at the last, is one crab.
Segment appearances
Progression
Seals and crabs from Paz (ch. 6); the migration, Raul, a side to choose (ch. 24, ch. 25); 'War is hell' on a Florida beach (ch. 48); Ines with the Abbot (ch. 25); failed, and hell invited (ch. 54); crab sperm as a mob (ch. 55); the last crab (ch. 68).