David van Wert was a member of the famed family of trapeze artists The Flying Dutchmen, until a tragic accident left him an orphan and earned him the colorful nickname “Butterfinge...view moreDavid van Wert was a member of the famed family of trapeze artists The Flying Dutchmen, until a tragic accident left him an orphan and earned him the colorful nickname “Butterfingers.” Hounded by inexplicable feelings of guilt, he left the circus and joined the Peace Corps, where he spent several weeks in Benin selling office supplies. Bringing incredible savings on all your office essentials to the third world was less fulfilling than the brochures had implied, however, and soon David was desperately looking for a way out. Dame Fortune smiled on David in the form of malaria. With no use for a weakened, delirious office supply salesman, the Peace Corps allowed the feverish David to simply wander off. Soon, he was passed out onboard a tramp steamer headed for the United States. And the rest, as they say, is not important enough to be considered history, but happened nonetheless.view less