I meet A. outside. In Tervuren? We greet each other with a kiss. She waves me off because she's ill. Have I caught it now? Then H. sits opposite me at a table. We both have a small cocktail in front of us. I stir it and ask what it's made of. When I look up, I see that H. has already finished it in one gulp. He says something about rum. I say, “Really?”, thinking that he drank it so quickly to get a kick out of it, to endure it here with me.