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Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon is a short story written about a 30 year old carpenter who makes bird cages as a hobby . He has a girlfriend named Ursula ("wife") who he has been unmarried to for 4 years and no children. Balthazar makes a beautiful cage which is publicaly admired and considered his best piece of work . Many people are interested in the cage but Balthazar remains loyal to the customer that originally ordered it . It turns out the the person who ordered the cage was a 12 year old boy and his parents were unaware that he ordered it . The parents refused to pay for it and the boy had a fit . Instead of taking the cage , Balthazar gave it to him for free . He left the boys and his family's house and someone asked him how much he got for it . He responded "sixty pesos" . Then he went out and got drunk for the first time and bought everyone drinks celebrating his 60 pesos that he was never given . The story ends with him looking dead lying on the street drunk .