Billy’s mother held him in her warm embrace and urged him not to lose heart. She urged him not to dwell on his loneliness, but to embark on some new weekend activities. She told him he had a great uncle, an eccentric, elder author, who lived very near the school, and suggested that Billy could visit him.
As soon as he had settled into his new dormitory, Billy sent an e-mail to his great uncle, who was in fact the elder brother of his maternal grandfather, suggesting a weekend visit. The old man quickly replied. His schedule was fairly elastic, he said, and he would be pleased to see Billy any time Billy could come.
The following Saturday, Billy went to the old man’s cottage, which was situated a short cycle ride away on the edge of a forest. Billy’s first impression, when the old gentleman opened the door, was that his great uncle seemed to embody all that was meant by the term eccentricity. He was wearing a British Empire uniform and an elegant tropical helmet. Inside the cottage, there was another man, an earnest young photographer. He was in the process of taking pictures for a book jacket, which explained the curious uniform. While he snapped away, the old gentleman gave Billy an eloquent précis of the contents of the book. It was about a family who picked a basket of fungi, believing them to be edible when they were in fact poisonous. The consequences of this error were then described in elaborate detail and it was impossible to eliminate the suspicion that the father had picked them on purpose.
The photographer, meanwhile, was very efficient, and the photos were soon finished. Then the young man turned to Billy and remarked that his great uncle belonged to the elite of English letters. His prose, the Youngman said, was economical and terse. A weekend with his uncle, said the Youngman, would elevate Billy’s thoughts to a higher plane. Indeed, in the young man’s opinion, the old gentleman was already eligible for the Nobel Prize.