Unlikely Animals

Clive is delighted to hear that Ingrid is coming to the house to talk to him but baffled and hurt to learn that her purpose in visiting is to encourage him to rehome the fox, donating it to the San Diego Zoo. Their conversation is cut short when the janitor at the university calls Ingrid to tell her the pipes have frozen in the library. Ingrid hurries away, asking Moses to watch her husband.

Increasingly confused, Clive decides to print out some more flyers about Crystal. Still wearing his pajamas, he sets off through the mounting blizzard in his motorcycle, with Rasputin and Moses in the sidecar. At the copy store, he adds a reward for $1 million to the poster. Recalling his discussion with his wife, Clive reflects that Rasputin would be happy roaming free in the park and asks Harold to show him how to get in, adding that he hopes to meet The Sprite. The dead remark that The Sprite has no ghost and that the fate of animals after death is a mystery. Wearing the motorcycle helmet that he has just taken off the dog, Clive heads into the park, stapling missing person posters to the trees as he passes.

Emma is called out of class and told that her father is missing. A search party is immediately formed and given special permission to search inside the park. Mack partners up with Emma to look for her father. They see an elderly lady called Mavis Spooner feeding two bears. She yells at them to keep off her property. She has already seen Percy Eaklin in the park with a much younger woman and is now worried that his “sex party” is growing in scale (282). Emma and Mack depart when they hear Moses barking.

Emma reaches Moses to find Auggie already there with three volunteer firefighters. Rasputin is furiously digging for Clive, who has become trapped in a hog tunnel. Emma manages to pull Clive out, holding onto his motorcycle helmet. She performs CPR and restores Clive’s pulse and breathing, although he remains unconscious. In the ambulance, Emma notes that the EMTs seem very solemn, and she realizes that her father may be brain dead. The dead narrators remark that they cannot hear his thoughts.

The despairing ghost of Harold arrives at the cemetery, complaining that he had come so close to his objectives. The ensuing discussion is interrupted when one of the ghosts notes that Harold’s brain has “come online” (289).

Emma learns that Rasputin probably saved her father after his heart was stopped by a shock from the electric fence. The fox’s digging kept the air circulating. Clive is still in a coma. He reflects that he expected to live until spring, and the dead narrators reflect that he should not die without being reunited with his wife and bandmates or learning the fate of Crystal Nash. Before the opening night of Titanic!: The Musical, Auggie reads to Clive from a biography of Rasputin.

Leanne Hatfield’s grandfather drives her into the park for her singing lesson with Mavis Spooner. Earlier that morning, still upset about the apparent invasion of the park by morally dubious outsiders, Mavis irritably tries to shoo the bears, who have come to ask from breakfast, off her porch. The male bear grows angry and attacks her.

When the Hatfields arrive, they see Mavis’s dead body on the porch and go to the Eaklin cabin to ask for help. There, they find Crystal Nash with Isabella Eaklin. When Percy Eaklin emerges from the bathroom, he apologizes profusely and asks for permission to turn himself into the police.

Emma receives a call from the police, bringing her up to date on the situation and asking her to meet Crystal at the police station with her family. Crystal has been handcuffed and forced to wear a tracker on her ankle, but has suffered no physical or sexual abuse. Crystal was recruited by the Eaklins when it became clear that conventional medicine was doing Isabella no good. When Crystal missed a healing session and Percy found out she was an addict, he panicked and kidnapped her at gun point. When Isabella recovered, the Eaklins faked her funeral in order not to raise suspicions. The kidnapping helped Crystal overcome her addiction, and she is convinced that she really healed Isabella.

Crystal and the Eaklins are interviewed on television. Crystal visits Clive with Emma and Ingrid, and they discuss his constancy in searching for her. The Hatfields receive a substantial reward from the estate of Ralph Kelsey. Mavis Spooner arrives at the cemetery still swatting at the bear, who was named Jack after her husband. With time, she is reunited with her husband and learns that he has been watching over her.

Crystal proposes a late-night healing session for Clive. Tests prove that Isabella Eaklin’s mysterious illness really has disappeared. They suggest that her mysterious autoimmune disease was healed through a “placebo effect”—as a consequence of her faith in Crystal’s healing powers (312). At three o’clock in the morning, Crystal, Ingrid, Auggie, and Emma form a circle around Clive and describe what they love about him. They are interrupted by a nurse who shoos them away. Elated and amused, Ingrid reflects that the ritual was beautiful.