*****

The specialists couldn't explain this sudden rebirth. It was as if, they said, the child needed two full years of extrauterine womblike existence to become operational.

As for the rage, the only explanation advanced was that it was the product of a mental event. Something had happened in its brain, something it couldn't accommodate, and instaneously the gray matter had been shaken out of its slumber. Neural massages had begun coursing through the nervous system. The body started to move.

Great empires can collapse for reasons that initially seem perfectly incomprehensible.

Children as still as statues can suddenly turn into braying beasts. The most surprising thing was how much this delighted the family.

Sic transit tubi gloria

The father couldn't get over his excitement. He felt as if he had a newborn. He called his mother, who lived in Brussels.

"The Plant woke up! Get on a plane come right away!"

The grandmother replied that she would need to have a couple of suits made before coming all the way to Japan, which is where her son and his family were living. She was a most elegant woman. The suits would take at least a month or two.