Even though it had been difficult to procure new drums in a timely fashion following my poor mama’s death, which of necessity brought the Thursday visits to the Arsenal Arcade to an end, while Matzerath was slipshod at best about my drums and Jan Bronski came by our place less and less often, my situation became all the more hopeless when the toy merchant’s shop was destroyed and the sight of Markus sitting at his bare desk made perfectly clear: Markus won’t be giving you drums any more, Markus no longer deals in toys, Markus has broken off all business relations with the firm that used to manufacture and deliver beautifully lacquered red and white tin drums to you.