The Rabbit Hutch

Since Jack brought back the fish, it seems to him that Blandine has been avoiding the apartment. However, Jack senses that he and his roommates will kill something again soon. Malik realizes that Todd has a crush on him and throws a shoe at him, ordering him to kill a mouse. Todd reluctantly does so and emerges crying because the mouse was a baby. Malik tells Todd, “you did it for Blandine” (165).

Blandine of Leon, the second-century martyr, was savagely tortured by Romans at the age of 15. However, she only died when her executioners “resorted to a minimalist approach and stabbed her with a dagger” (167). Tiffany Watkins chose Blandine as her namesake as a means of transcending her corporeality. Six months after the name change was made legal, she discovered that Blandine was Latin for “mild,” whereas her given name, Tiffany, meant “manifestation of God” in Greek (167).

Fifteen hours before her bodily ecstasy, Blandine is walking to Chastity Valley, thinking of an article she read about a woman called Pearl. Pearl was born with her abdominal organs in inverted positions; however, unusually for such a baby, she survived to be 99.