Unlikely Animals

Clive’s family sleeps in after their nighttime exertions. He wakes at midday and is filled in on Crystal’s return by Harold. Clive is repeatedly singing the Black Sabbath ballad, “Changes.” He is as yet unable to speak. The dead narrators comment on his great fortune in winning extra time on earth, reflecting on how they would take advantage of such a chance. Clive is delighted to see Crystal, and when his family tells him about the kidnapping, he regains the power of speech to conclude that he has been heroic. Clive is released from the hospital two weeks later, to an ecstatic reception from Moses and Rasputin.

Titanic!: The Musical opens to a full house. An extra seat is provided for Sid Wish at the last moment. The first act goes smoothly. At the beginning of the second act, the night watchman who is supposed to tell the captain about the iceberg has an attack of nerves. Emma holds both his hands and feels her healing touch briefly return. The boy, Toby L., strides on stage with a visible erection and tells the captain there is “not an iceberg in sight” (330). The children begin to improvise, deciding to sail the ship to Florida and holding an impromptu party on deck. The dancing and singing grows increasingly riotous, until Emma uses the Carpathia foghorn to restore order. Two of Emma’s pupils, Jonathan and Rat, try to lift Tobey onto their shoulders in triumph, and Emma calls to Rat to put him down.

Hearing his daughter call to Rat triggers a vivid hallucination for Clive in which rats run all over the theater, and he begins yelling in alarm to the audience. All the children run for the exit just as a panel of stage lights come crashing down onto the stage. If Clive had not raised the alarm, there would have been “a dozen dead children” (337). Clive is applauded as a hero. The only fatality in the incident is Sid Wish, who is too absorbed in a magazine to realize what is happening.

The play receives rave reviews from the critic, who left during the intermission, thinking the second half would be unbearably depressing. At home, Clive kicks Harold out of the bedroom so he and Ingrid can make love. Isabella and Leanne visit the cemetery with a Ouija board to tell Leanne’s mother about the day’s events.

At the cemetery, the dead Clive proudly shows his headstone, which describes him as a “[l]oving father and husband, hero to young persons [and] friend to all creatures” (349).