Summary

The narration returns to Downing in the past, and to present-tense, third-person narration. As Downing struggles to create exactly the right shape for the aardvark, he struggles particularly to find the right sort of eyes. The eyes, he thinks, are the place where the life and the spirit of an animal truly live, and if the eyes are not right, the life of the animal will not emerge. He also realizes that he has shaped the head, neck, and shoulders incorrectly, so takes everything he has done apart and starts over. It is not, the narration comments, the first time this has happened, and it is likely to not be the last. As he reworks the framework and the clay-work, he finds himself feeling like he has gotten truer and closer to the life and spirit of the aardvark, with the text...