Short Fiction · Chapter
Laura explained
Laura, facing death, tells Amanda she believes she will be reincarnated as an otter due to her petty and vindictive behavior in life, particularly toward Amanda's husband Egbert.
What happens
Laura, facing death, tells Amanda she believes she will be reincarnated as an otter due to her petty and vindictive behavior in life, particularly toward Amanda's husband Egbert. After Laura dies, an otter begins attacking Egbert's prized chickens and garden, leading to a hunt that kills a female otter with a strangely human look. Amanda becomes increasingly disturbed, and later, while traveling in Egypt, Egbert is tormented by a naked brown Nubian boy who throws his shirts into the bath, leaving Amanda seriously ill.
Themes in this chapter
Imagination vs. Reality
Laura's belief in reincarnation as an otter blurs the line between her imaginative prediction and the literal otter attacks that follow her death.
Cruelty and Violence
The otter hunt and the killing of the she-otter, described with a human-like look, highlight the casual cruelty of sport and the violence underlying domestic life.
Gender Roles and Marriage
Laura's resentment of Egbert and her petty revenge against him reflect tensions within marriage, while Amanda's role as a placid wife contrasts with Laura's rebelliousness.
Characters to notice
- Laura Lipping
The deceased who believed she would be reincarnated as an otter; her death and subsequent otter attacks drive the plot.
- Amanda Smithly-Dubb
Laura's friend and Egbert's wife; she is disturbed by Laura's reincarnation idea and later falls seriously ill after the otter hunt and a strange incident in Cairo.
- Sir Lulworth Quayne
Amanda's uncle-in-law; he discusses Laura's reincarnation ideas with Amanda and dismisses them as not necessarily insane.
- Egbert
Amanda's husband; his poultry and garden are repeatedly ravaged by the otter, and he is later tormented by a Nubian boy in Cairo.
Key passages
“I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday.”
The doctor says I can survive until Tuesday.
Laura announces her impending death with dark humor.
“I turned the entire family of speckled Sussex into his seedling shed the day after the puppy episode.”
I let all his speckled Sussex chickens into his seedling shed the day after the puppy incident.
Laura confesses to a petty revenge against Egbert.
“Rather fun with half the neighbourhood looking on, and anyhow not worse than this Saturday-to-Tuesday business of dying by inches.”
It would be quite enjoyable with half the neighborhood watching, and anyway it's no worse than slowly dying from Saturday to Tuesday.
Laura dismisses the horror of being hunted by otter hounds.
“The little beast has thrown all my clean shirts into the bath!”
That little creature has tossed all my clean shirts into the bathtub!
Egbert's outburst in Cairo about the Nubian boy.