Unlikely Animals

The section again opens with an excerpt from The Collected Writings of Ernest Harold Baynes—a passage entitled “Another Ending to Jimmie’s Story.” Harold goes back to see Jimmie a few months later, and the bear no longer seems to recognize him.

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.