Remarkably Bright Creatures

On the afternoon of Tova’s last day at the aquarium, Barb and Janice stop by her house with a cake that reads “Happy Retirement!” Cat curls up in Barb’s lap, and although she’s a dog person, she admits he’s very cute—hinting she’ll likely adopt him once Tova moves. After her final shift, Tova says goodbye to each of the individual creatures, but Marcellus hasn’t emerged from his den all night, and she can’t find him anywhere. Fearing the worst, she begins to choke up.

When Tova goes to leave her key in Terry’s office, she’s stunned to find Marcellus on the floor—pale and weak, but still alive. Her bad back prevents her from picking him up, so she quickly fills her mop bucket with water from his tank and eases him in, watching as he begins to revive. Then she notices the class ring Cameron had thrown into the wolf eel enclosure lying in the spot where Marcellus had been. She picks it up and, on closer inspection, sees the engraving: EELS. Her heart stops—it’s her son’s initials, Erik Ernest Lindgren Sullivan.