The Tiger Flu

Chapter 27 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 1 of the node “Minor Heat.”

Homesick, Kora walks back to the Cordova School from the Woodward Building. On her way, she opens the scale she found on the kitchen counter of her family’s apartment. A projection appears with two batterkites that Kora only recognizes as “squelchy oblong figures with dancing tentacles” (177). The scale contains an invitation to the “Deep Scale Commune, Pacific Pearl Parkade, Gallbladder Hour, 2nd Day Minor Heat, Wood Snake Year 2145” (177).

Still on the street, Kora bumps into the procession of Cordova girls who are performing a funeral march for Madame Dearborn: “They bawl and howl, some of them sincerely, others in ritual tones. Many of them have instruments—drums, kazoos, rattles, and horns—that they blow, bang, or shake in a deafening frenzy” (177). Velma shouts to Kora that Madame Dearborn is dead, and Modesta notices the invitation scale in Kora’s hands. Modesta and Kora tussle over the invitation, but Kora ends up keeping the scale. At the crematorium, they deposit Madame Dearborn’s body and say their goodbyes.

At the memorial feast for Madame Dearborn, Myra announces that the food they are enjoying was procured by her, Tania, Modesta, and Soraya using only three catcoats—the fourth has been stolen, and they will have a group assembly until someone confesses to taking it.