As a child in boarding school in the 1930s, everyone was ill all the time: we meet, matter-of-factly, sundry cuts and bruises, vomiting, constipation, colds and flu, scurf, bronchial pneumonia, warts, measles, perpetual nosebleeds, swollen glands, mumps and a heart murmur.
But when they met, matters suddenly took a serious turn.
Whether Joe could actually ascend from floor to floor of a building, say, felling each man he meets, matters less than the creepy cleverness of the framing, in which every hammer blow is captured, in black-and-white fuzz, by security cameras on the walls.
By road La Coruña and Valencia are 1,033km apart, 10 hours across the country, northwest corner to east coast, 350km south of the French border, but still: when they meet, it matters.
It is not the success of the swimming meet that matters, it is the success of how to handle situations, how to work around one's weaknesses, and how to stay focused, disciplined and motivated.
If you follow his method, Mystery writes, you "should be able to seduce any woman you meet, no matter how attractive she is and no matter how far out of reach she seems, within 4 to 10 hours".
