Unlikely Animals

This chapter contains an excerpt from The Collected Writings of Ernest Harold Baynes entitled “Another Home for Death.” Harold and Louise adopt a pair of wolf cubs that they call Death and Dauntless. The wolves prove hard to handle, breaking into a neighboring farm and terrorizing the animals until Harold recaptures them by imitating a wolf howling. Deciding to separate the pair, Harold rehouses Death and keeps Dauntless, who howls every night. His wife disapproved of splitting up the brothers, and Harold expresses admiration for her caring nature.

Ingrid continues to be devastated by Ralph Kelsey’s death. The rest of the family share her sadness but cannot help thinking he would have been amused at the manner of his passing.

The Starlings move into a motel, with Ingrid and Clive in separate rooms and Emma and Auggie sharing another. Auggie questions the wisdom of indulging their father’s obsession, criticizes his sister for not contacting him when he was in a rehabilitation facility, and chastises her for not calling Crystal after her father died. Emma asks him about the meaning of “G.G.,” his nickname for her. She has always interpreted it as “Golden Girl” but he tells her it means “Giant Grouper”—a big fish in a small pond.