At first he went daily, then every other day and finally once a week, to the offices of the coal corporation where he used to be a miner, to find out what was what. the only thing he did find out in the end was that that little house of his was even a greater blessing than he had thought. some of his fellow ex-miners who had nowhere to return at the end of the day's waiting just slept outside the doors of the offices and cooked what meal they could scrounge together in bournvita tins. as the weeks lengthened and still nobody could say what was what jonathan discontinued his weekly visits altogether and faced his palm wine bar. why did jonathan return to the offices of the coal corporation? to tell the other ex-miners about his house to see if the ex-miners wanted to buy palm wine to see if he could get his old job back to give his ex-miner friends money and food