Rakunk
Jimmy watches a young rakunk peek from under a bush and beckons it, remembering that the creature was a birthday present from his father when he was ten. He can picture his mother clearly—a Polaroid‑like image—but his father is a vague collage of details: the motion of his Adam’s apple, the light on his ears, a cuffed left hand. The rakunk, a black‑and‑white animal bred from the second‑generation splice of OrganInc’s pet program, was the smallest of its litter. Jimmy names it “Killer” after rejecting the suggestion “Bandit.” The gift is remembered alongside the ritual of birthday cakes that Dolores, the live‑in Filipina caretaker, used to bake, and his mother’s indifferent, detached birthday gifts. His father later apologizes for the present and repeatedly asks “Right, Jimmy?” in a strained tone.
Shortly after, Jimmy’s father is headhunted by the biotech firm NooSkins, a subsidiary of HelthWyzer, and moves with the family to the HelthWyzer Compound, a Renaissance‑style house with an arched portico, glazed tiles, a large indoor pool, two shopping malls, a hospital, clubs, and a golf course. The new compound enforces tight security; guards are rude and prone to strip‑searches, especially of women. Jimmy’s mother complains that phones and emails are bugged and that the cleaning staff are spies, while his father dismisses her paranoia, insisting they are safe. An incident weeks before the move involved a terrorist woman with a bio‑form in hairspray that killed a guard, heightening the guards’ anxiety.
At home, Jimmy’s parents argue about the father’s neuro‑regeneration project at NooSkins, which aims to grow human neo‑cortex tissue in a pigoon for stroke victims. His mother calls the work immoral and sacrilegious, accusing the company of exploiting desperate people, while his father defends the research as hopeful. Their fight escalates into shouting, swearing, and accusations of cynicism, with Jimmy listening via hidden microphones he installed at school.
Jimmy now attends HelthWyzer Public School, where he no longer brings his lunch home. He enjoys the bright cafeteria, balanced meals, and the library’s instructional CD‑ROMs, especially “Classics in Animal Behaviour Studies,” featuring a parrot named Alex who invents the word “cork‑nut.” One day he brings Killer to school; the pet becomes a hit, and a girl named Wakulla Price, his first crush, compliments Jimmy and pets the animal, sending a shiver through him. Meanwhile, his father’s work on pigoon skin‑replacement technology continues, promising wrinkle‑free epidermis but producing grotesque failed subjects. The chapter ends with Jimmy turning off his computer, unplugging his earphones, and lying in bed with Killer tucked under the covers, feeling the animal’s tongue lick salt from his feet.