In this chapter, the narrator tells the story of his mother, who died in 1930. She was a mistress of a wealthy businessman, who abandoned her when she became addicted to cigarettes. He took her to live with him in an alley, hoping that she would stop, but she relapsed and killed herself. The narrator is now sixteen years old. He tells us that he is taking his father to the underworld so that he can report on what happened to him.