Schiller saw that the man who had returned to sit beside him was no different from the previous one. He seemed not to have noticed that only the head on his own plate was fresh. He picked up his knife and fork again and began eating by himself.
But this time, when he used his fork to pull at the flesh on the face, the flesh on his own face did not fall away with it, as if it really were merely a dish rather than his own head.
At the other tables, people had gradually begun eating the rotten heads. Like this man, their own heads rolled onto the tables and were placed back into the plates. Then another version of them walked in and continued eating their own heads.
The person who returned might no longer have been them.
Schiller looked at the menu beside him. There were seven courses listed. Following the order of a French meal, they were served one by one, each course finished before the next began: Appetizer Wine, cold appetizer, soup, main course, cheese, dessert, and after-dinner wine.
Schiller had arrived rather late. The Appetizer Wine had already been served, sitting to his left: a glass of orange-yellow aperitif. But it was clearly unusual as well. When Schiller tipped the glass slightly, he found the wine viscous, like some kind of syrup mixed with bubbles.
Then the head served on the table must have been the cold appetizer. Its name on the menu was "Nourishment."
Schiller recalled the nursery rhyme the head had sung earlier. It seemed to have two parts. The first few lines said that it had eaten them and gained nourishment, but they became fewer and fewer, so in the end they could only eat themselves and eventually grow into