It's been a while since we've seen the narrator, but he's back. He's sitting in a restaurant with his friend, freda, and they're having dinner. The narrator is annoyed that they've been dining at the same place for so long. He wants to pay for the food himself, but the waiter won't let him do so. So the two of them head back to the dining room, where they'll pay for each other's food. When they get back, the waiter tells them they can pay for their own food, too, but they can't do that since there's only one of them. So they go back to their table, and the waiter asks them to pay the waiter's bill. They do, and then the waiter leaves them alone to eat. We learn that this is the same restaurant that the narrator's mother used to work at, and that's where the narrator and his friend first met. The waiter is shocked to see that there are no one else in the restaurant, so the narrator is happy to see his friend looking at another dish instead of the stew he'd been eating with his mom. He also notices that the food is different now, and he thinks that it's because he was in a lesson with his mother. He thinks that the restaurant is a place where people can "enchant people" with their "happiest memories" and "food as visions" . He wonders if this is just a normal restaurant, or if it could be a place that enchants people with its food and memories. He asks the waiter to put everything back in its place, so that they can enjoy the moment. He says that