The Back of the Turtle

Energized by Crisp’s visit, Mara resumes painting a portrait of her old friend Lilly. Though they were close as teenagers, sharing an ambition of leaving the reserve to pursue their dream careers, Lilly is gone now. Mara recalls finding out about the birth of Lilly’s first child through a photograph she received in the mail showing Lilly and her baby, Riel. As she continues to paint, Mara feels like Lilly and Riel are coming back to life. This feeling helps her “make the world whole again” (127). Though neither Mara nor Gabriel knows it yet, Lilly was actually Gabriel’s sister Little—and Lilly’s son, Riel, was Gabriel’s nephew.

Dorian continues to experience a plethora of physical ailments. At his office, he watches CBC. A reporter named Manisha Khan interviewing Dr. Thicke about Klebsiella planticola. Thicke claims that the dangerous GreenSweep never escaped Domidion’s laboratory environment. When asked about Gabriel, he slips up and mentions that he is missing.

Dorian heads to his private gym but is intercepted by a PR agent named Victoria Lustig. Lustig informs him that the press are catching wind of Gabriel’s disappearance. Lustig says that major networks are already asking Domidion for comment on Gabriel’s disappearance. They decide to invoke “employee confidentiality,” meaning that no one is allowed to speak to the presses about Gabriel.