THE GIRL IN THE ZOO by Jennifer Lauer

Author:Jennifer Lauer [Lauer, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798987318010
Publisher: Kings Of Kontent, Inc.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Waking up the next morning, I’m grateful to find that the pile of pillows and blankets is still intact. As I shuffle over to it, I remove the pillows from on top of Pedro. He is still here, and he is too quiet and peaceful to be transformed into a werewolf. He stirs, rubbing his eyes. He’s charming.

“Good morning. Did you sleep okay?” I ask.

“Not my best sleep, but I’ve had worse,” he says. I untie his arms, and he slowly stretches out. He rocks his head from side to side. I go to the bathroom to splash my face with water.

Borgie enters the room for scans. We look at each other nervously, and I wonder if everything we did last night was for nothing. I stand in T-pose, and she checks me. Then she moves to Pedro, who tries to stand further away from her. Borgie’s claws hold no syringes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one hidden somewhere. We are quiet until she leaves. Finally, we sit on my bed and lie back on the bare mattress in relief.

“I really don’t want to get tied up again,” he says.

“Hmm. How about if she tries to inject you, I can create a diversion, and you run to the forest and climb a tree. While Borgie tries to get you down, then I’ll hide.”

This is not the most clever plan, but at least it doesn’t include tying up Pedro.

“It’s not the worst plan I’ve ever heard,” he replies.

“Do you have something better?” I ask.

“No, that’s good. We’ll do that until one of us comes up with something else.”

Okay, fair enough.

Pedro goes over to the table and pulls Walden out from the few books I have.

Walden, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, In Cold Blood, and What to Expect When You’re Expecting. That last one gives me new pause.

“I saw this last night, when lying on the floor. I’ve never read it,” Pedro says.

“It’s my favorite,” I tell him. “I hadn’t read it before I got here. Borgie gave me these few books, and I’ve read them each a hundred times.”

He starts to read it out loud. I sit and listen. The deep rasp of his voice is soothing. He looks over to me.

“Keep going,” I say. I listen for a while and then take over, and we take turns reading out loud from Walden. It’s heartening that he loves it nearly as much as I do. Getting lost in the New England woods feels like a human thing to do. The way Thoreau details nature, the real outside world from before the modern age, it feels like a cure. His words are a healing reminder of the outside, the wildness of the trees and dirt. Life.

Sometime around midday, Borgie returns to the room and starts vacuuming with an accordion arm attached to her side, sucking up the bugs clustered by the door. When the bugs get in, probably due to condensation, she gets rid of them relatively fast. The bugs remind me that I am close to the outdoors, even though I can’t see it.

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