Its citizens become human, the sorceress regains her sight and Chico's world becomes magical again. In the real world, Chico's parents die in a helicopter accident over the sea. When their bodies were recovered, their heads had inflated five times larger. Daffyd Thomas has a horrible-looking thumb. He used to suck it frequently when he was younger and it now looks shrivelled and cannot grow fingernails. It seems that due to the lack of "affection", the thumb has "controlled" the hands into becoming fidgety and Daffyd is constantly told off by his parents for sticking his fingers in different places, regardless of sanitation. Exhausted by their son's behaviour, Daffyd's parents announce that they are going on holiday for a week, leaving their son with his 93-year-old, deaf grandmother, Gwenyth. Daffyd is devastated because his grandmother can talk for hours about boring parts of her childhood. Four days of Granny Gwenyth later, Daffyd had been trapped in the living room with her as she talked about her memories and various hobbies. He had ignored her and used the house phone to perform prank calls until he had no desire left. He dials randomly and contacts an Italian pizza restaurant, which offers him a delicious-sounding "Kidnapped Caper". When he answers the front door, a man in sunglasses and a black suit with a machine gun is on the doorstep, who frogmarches him into a limousine and bashes him unconscious. Daffyd's parents return from holiday over a week later to find envelopes full of fingers and ransom notes. When confronted, Gwenyth admits that she never noticed that her grandson had vanished nine days ago. Mr Thomas pays the £10,000 ransom and Daffyd is returned home the next day with only a thumb left on his hand. His mother appreciates that her son will not get into any more trouble for fiddling but he sticks it in his mouth to suck. His father tells her to look for the Bitter Aloe. Bessy is a beautiful, red-haired, green-eyed Irish girl who is wasteful and forgetful. Her brother Callum is a neat freak, who cleans up after his sister, which makes Bessy suspicious, assuming that he is trying to make her look irresponsible. One morning, her mother discovers a mountain of dirty laundry and empty containers behind Bessy's bedroom door and orders her to clean her room.