This week’s puzzle:

A man with a gift for language acquires the thing that he treasures most but loses it in circumstances that will never be fully explained. As if this were not bad enough, he must endure a family member with a dangerous obsession, a pack of marauding animals, and the difficulties of multicultural celebratory rituals.

Last week’s puzzle:

A young woman travels from a church to a hospital, two restaurants, and a house via ambulance (presumably), wheelchair, airplane, motorcycle, and wagon. During her journeys, she encounters two females who lost their mothers at a young age, two teachers with problematic students, and a large number of handicapped people.

And the answer is . . . ▼