As I imagined Marcus enjoying his tea, I had the thought, as long as his story does not end in too much grief, one day he will look back and envy his present self for his adventure, for life is like being at sea, for a while you are being thrust up and down and it seems terrible, then the calm arrives and you slowly slowly turn into a vegetable (gosh, that almost sounded like afairy story!). I think you know what I mean.

As I read once in a book, all heroes should die at the end of their adventure, for then they settle into boredom, get fat, drink too much and drive everyone away as they try to re-live their past by telling the younger generation all about it, again and again.