Prologue: Selenium

Fact: there are gravely low levels of selenium in the Grahamstown ground water. A healthy amount of this trace element is crucial for a sound mind: it ensures the neurons fire synchronously and generally keeps you sane and competent at crossword puzzles. Not enough of it and your brain begins to fizz and spit like a busted firework and you have trouble just making change after buying a pack of Stuyvies at Wellingtons. Selenium deficiency may help partly explain the sleep of reason that afflicted so many of us in those fevered days. Sometimes Grahamstown felt like an idiot-machine. We didn’t crawl out the same people we’d walked in.