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As he follows this ghost of his own memory, he remembers a joke. A joke/puzzle. Why can a bear only go half-way into the woods? Because then he's not going in -- he's coming out. Not the funniest joke, but it fits the current situation. They are coming out of the woods, he and the woman. There is a valley. In the valley, there is a village. He can only follow the woman a little further. She is an intellectualization of his hunger, he thinks. And she is not real. She goes away, but she will come back. The hunger remains. There is a country song in these thoughts, he says to himself. Again, he chuckles. He is in a mood as he enters the village.