Let the creatures have their gaps
Remarkably Bright Creatures“Let the creatures have their gaps” names Tova Sullivan’s choice to leave a screen unrepaired, at least for now. The phrase turns a practical decision into a compact principle of restraint: after worrying about Marcellus’s escape route and remembering Cat at home, Tova lets the creatures keep the openings that make their own movement possible.
The Phrase and Its Immediate Context
Tova’s thought begins as a question about a recurring pattern: “What is it with creatures and small gaps lately?” She has considered going to the hardware store for superglue, the same store where Terry Bailey obtained wood for a clamp. That clamp had later landed with a heavy thump in the trash collection bin after Tova threw it away. At the aquarium, she finds no clamps on Marcellus’s tank and feels guilty, wondering whether Terry assumes he misplaced one.
The memory of Cat curled on Tova’s davenport comes to her as she thinks about the screen. Without having set out to make a decision, she resolves not to repair it, at least for the time being. “Let the creatures have their gaps, then,” she says, laughing aloud; the pumps gurgle in response.
Meaning in the Scene
The expression gathers two immediate concerns into one image. At the aquarium, the absent clamp and Marcellus’s hidden place in the tank make the question of access newly charged. At home, Cat’s presence recalls the unrepaired screen. Tova’s decision does not erase her concern for the animals; it changes how that concern is expressed. Rather than closing every opening, she allows some space for creatures to move on their own terms.
The phrase remains deliberately modest: Tova chooses not to repair the screen “at least for now,” rather than declaring a permanent rule. Its force comes from this limited, concrete choice and from the echo between the screen at home and the ways animals find passage elsewhere.
Narrative Significance
The line gives verbal form to a shift from managing every vulnerability toward accepting that not every gap must be sealed. Tova has just confronted her unease about Marcellus’s tank and the clamp, yet her response is neither to pursue him nor to tighten control. The pumps’ imagined agreement lends the decision a moment of warmth, while the laugh marks her recognition of the absurdity and tenderness in it. The expression thus makes openness—not simply escape, but permission for a creature to have room—an emerging principle in Tova’s relationship with the animals around her.
