The Dragon Keeper by Mindy Mejia

Author:Mindy Mejia
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781618220134
Publisher: Byte Level Research
Published: 2012-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

18 Days after Hatching

The map was the first thing she saw; it was one of those Rand McNally U.S. travel maps that tented and creased like a deformed turtle shell, hiding all but the legs of her living room coffee table. Paco leaned over it, dragging a Sharpie between an erratic pattern of stars scattered across the Great Lakes and Plains. Ben sat on the floor on the far side of Paco’s legs, smoking a joint and talking through a haze of smoke that made his face look like an ash moon, gray and tranquil. As Meg walked into the room, he looked up.

“You’re home early.” He glanced at the clock, which was edging toward six. “Or early for you.”

“I’m going … shopping with Gemma and Allison.”

He coughed, scissoring his knees into his chest. “It’s not even Christmas.”

Paco laughed. Tall and bone-thin, he was the Olive Oyl to Ben’s Wimpy. She ignored him.

“It’s for that stupid reception. I can’t wear my uniform, and Gemma, well—she’s making me.”

Meg walked up to the nearest side of the couch, turning Paco into a human barrier between herself and Ben, and made a show of looking at the map. Ben continued his one-sided conversation—something about the new menu he wanted to try at the fairs. Paco grunted occasionally, but he didn’t seem to be paying much more attention to Ben’s chatter than Meg was.

She would have just hopped the light rail to the mall side of the America compound after work, except today was the day. It had been two weeks since she’d slept with Antonio—the first time—and she had to tell Ben before the guilt ate her alive. It was like acid in her stomach now, digesting little bits of her insides every time she saw him and acted as if everything were normal. Or normal for them. The whole thing was insane; she didn’t even know what she was cheating on. She choked on the word boyfriend. Lover, roommate, friend? None of it was really Ben. Didn’t everyone have some sort of Ben, a person who was just circling in the same habitat, putting up with you while you put up with him? Someone who met you in the middle to pay bills, call for pizza, and trade orgasms?

He wasn’t even in this habitat for part of the year. She stared at the map and counted the days. Soon he would migrate south, leaving a bunch of half-filled notebooks, a scattering of roaches, and the ghost of an empty waiting room with pale, skin-colored walls.

Ben passed the joint to Paco, still talking, and she thought she caught something with her name in it.

“What?”

“I want to go with you to that reception thing. See the miracle babies.”

Paco shook his head and mumbled something in Spanish as he exhaled a cloud of smoke and drew a curvy line between St. Louis and Cedar Rapids.

“Give it up, man,” Ben said, swiping the joint back. “They are miracles, better than nature intended. Right, babe?”

“Why do you

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