The portable fences in front of the giraffes’ pen are removed and replaced with star trailers, stage lights, and PA equipment. Benches are installed for zoo visitors to enjoy the show. The first showcase combines Judy Garland impersonators, the juggling Marconis, and a Gilbert and Sullivan revue. Coffee, doughnuts, and free passes are provided for all the newspaper reporters. The headlines begin to change.

Francesco is pleased. Their case, he feels, is finally getting the attention it deserves. He finds the nightclub performers delightful and develops an affinity for sequins.

Doë is annoyed. All of the commotion is disrupting her communion with nature. She wonders at this mix of protest and cabaret. Why haven’t they given us trees? she thinks. Where is our wisteria?

Lulu remains calm. This daily horizontal ritual has begun to change her. Sometimes she will phase out into a dreamlike state, have visions, and talk to God. It begins with a flash of blue light; her body starts to tremble. She has a sense of lift; she feels her body rise and float, and suddenly she finds herself out of the zoo, moving across the city, between buildings, over traffic, gliding by apartment windows. She looks in at people cooking dinner, watching television, talking on the telephone. She sees a man singing opera in the shower. The echoing, bellowing sound seems to carry across the air directly into her ears. When she comes to, Lulu is back on the ground, in the dirt, and she is full of wonder at what she has seen. She makes several attempts to inform the others, but they refuse to believe her. Doë worries that Lulu may be losing her mind, and Francesco wonders if the groundsmen have started to drug their food.

By the second week of protest, the doughnuts have gone stale and the reporters are looking for an ending. The public interest in suicidal giraffes is waning. The giraffes’ story has moved from the front page to the Metro section to a short column in Living. The Guild of Nightclub Performers has played out its contract and packed its bags. The reporters dust the powdered sugar from their fingers and begin to look for new assignments.

Through quick wit and skill, the benefactors have averted a PR disaster. Now they decide the time has come for a fast and sure resolution of the crisis. Discreetly they inquire about how to get some fresh giraffes. Calls are made; prices are bargained. The benefactors obtain three new giraffes from a California zoo in exchange for two warthogs, a flying squirrel, and a sum of money raised from the sale of Doë, Lulu, and Francesco to a traveling circus that asks no questions.