by Kathryn Hoff
“I hate to ask for help.”
She squeezed my shoulder again. “I know.”
I took a deep breath before entering the nursery. Do this for Molly. Do this for yourself.
Chubb looked up from diapering Gabe. “Still here? Rico said Quinn was going to fire you.”
Reyna glared from her beanbag, Deedee on her lap.
Penitent: sorry, remorseful, contrite.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have got mad and walked out on you like that. That was a stu-…a mean thing to do. And Reyna’s room is none of my business. I shouldn’t have looked in or asked about it. It’s just…I really miss my old life.”
“Who doesn’t?” Reyna snapped. “If you’re gonna be here, you gotta act responsible. You think me and Chubb can just walk out on the babies any time we get fed up?” She picked up a dropped binky and popped it back in Deedee’s mouth.
“It won’t happen again.”
“If it does, I’ll throw your ass outa here myself.”
Chubb nudged Reyna’s beanbag with his foot. “She apologized, Reyna. Maybe you have something to say?”
Reyna made a face like she was swallowing medicine. “I shouldn’ta said nothing ’bout your Paula. Not my business.”
Chubb nodded approval. At least he didn’t tell us to hug. “So, what did happen between you and Bert?” He snagged Gabe before he could climb the shelves.
“Bert came to dart Molly for a blood draw and she threw crap at him. He was poking her with the broom when I walked in.”
Reyna bounced Deedee on her knees. “That Bert’s a slimy creep.”
Chubb winked at me. “In case you haven’t noticed, Reyna thinks all men are slimy creeps.”
Reyna harrumphed. “Don’t mean it’s not true. Rico says you beat Bert to a pulp.”
“I just gave him a couple of whacks.”
“Whacks? What with?”
“The broom handle.”
Chubb laughed out loud, but Reyna tsked.
The memory of Bert cringing made me wince. “I guess I have a temper. I used to get written up at teen home all the time.”
Reyna scowled at me. “How’d you get fostered, then? Why’d anybody wanna take you?”
I just shrugged and handed Deedee a toy giraffe.
“Maybe you don’t belong here,” Reyna said, “if you can’t keep your cool with the babies.”
Deedee threw the giraffe under the changing table.
I got down on my hands and knees to retrieve the toy. “Kids, I don’t mind. They don’t know better. I just couldn’t stand seeing a grown man hurt a helpless animal. Anyway, Westerly assigned me all the dog duty so nobody else has to deal with Molly, and she told me to watch the kids for two hours a day.”
Reyna raised her eyebrows. “And what happens when you get mad at Gabe or Deedee?”
“Aw, it doesn’t make sense to get mad at a baby any more than it makes sense to get mad at a chimp. It’s bullies that get me seeing red. If anybody came in here and tried to hurt one of the babies the way Bert was going after Molly, he’d find my fighting side fast.”
Reyna thought a moment, then nodded. “All right, then. Four to six. They’re up from their naps then. We’ll come back and get them before supper. And I’m warning you—if you ever lose your temper with these children—”
“I won’t. Four to six. All right.” That would mean taking Barney out for his walk a little later, making me late for supper. Not that anyone would care.
If you want to make a friend, ask for help. “And, um, Reyna? You’re right—your room is your business. It’s just that my room is kind of bare. Maybe, if you have any drawings you don’t like, I could put one in my room to cheer it up a little?”
“Huh. We’ll see.”
I didn’t get much schoolwork done that afternoon, with the babies crawling all over me. Looking after two little babies was a full-time job.
Reyna and Chubb came back later than six, testing me. I just smiled pleasantly. Reyna handed me a drawing of a pixie in a flower dress. “You can have this if you want.” I admired the drawing and thanked her and asked her to sign it for me, like a real artist.
My apologies were not yet complete. On my way to take Barney for his walk, I knocked on the phage lab door and requested permission to speak to Bert. With Quinn and Rico standing in judgment, I did my very best to look humble and penitent while I apologized to the slimy, creepy, cowardly bully.
Supper with Reyna and Chubb was a little tense, but I managed to get through it without fighting with anybody. Afterward, Sergeant Stonehouse pulled me into the security office.
He sat me down, tugged at his ear, and asked, “Miss Jackie, on a scale from one to ten, exactly how much trouble can I expect from you?”
“Two,” I said. “Two and a half, tops.”
“Huh. You’re not one of my squad, but you performed a service to one of mine yesterday. Therefore, I am going to do you the great favor of treating you with the same consideration and respect I would give one of my own.” He paused. “Stop screwing up.”
When he didn’t say anything further, I said, “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
He sighed. “Look. I seen an awful lot of you young folks come through, feeling like you’re all alone in the world and you can’t count on nobody. One of the things I got to train into my recruits is that you ain’t alone when you’re part of a team. Next time you see something that needs doing something about, don’t try to handle it yourself. Call for help. Next time you got a problem with somebody here, get me or one of the doctors to work through it. Lord knows, we got enough trouble in this world without fighting amongst ourselves. Put your energy into making friends, not rivals. Savvy?”
“Got it.”
He scratched his head. “All right, go on. Stay outta trouble.”
I was up early the next morning to take the dog out. Molly drooped, hanging her balding head and picking at her toes, as I took her companion away. I promised her I’d be back soon.
After breakfast, Paula hauled me over to the isolation lab. She unlocked the door, but at the sight of a half-dozen white suits, I hesitated. Even empty, they looked ready to grab me and carry me away.
Paula shoved me into the room. “This is the prep room. It’s safe here.”
She pointed to another set of locked doors, marked in big red letters: Decontamination.
“The inner room is the red zone, where there will be live bacteria. In between is the decontamination room and shower.”
Paula picked out the smallest hazmat suit and thrust it at me. I took a step back—I couldn’t help it.
“What’s wrong?” Paula asked.
“Those suits give me the creeps.”
“Get over it. It’s just clothes. If you’re afraid of them, then you’ll never convince Molly.”
She slipped the top over my jumpsuit and showed me how the bottom fastened on with an airtight seal. “Put the helmet on and off in front of her so she understands it’s just a person inside and let her get used to your voice through the air filter.”
With the helmet on, I felt like an alien, ready to abduct a lower life form. Like I wasn’t part of the world at all.
“This is weird. How do I scratch my nose?”
She laughed. “You don’t.”
“How about going to the bathroom?”
“Go before you put the suit on, silly.” She hugged me, making the suit crinkle. “You all right now?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
I wasn’t fine. Much as I wanted to help Molly, this wasn’t how I’d imagined doing it.
How far would I go to help stop Eclipse? Far enough to put on the white suit and become the thing I hated the most? Far enough to help torture an imprisoned chimp? Was this better than teen home? I wasn’t sure anymore.
Suck it up, Jackie.
CHAPTER 13
Plan B
I took the white suit into the primate lab and hung it on a coat rack near the cage so Molly could get a good l
ook at it. Molly screeched a bit but settled down when it didn’t show signs of moving. There was another smelly smear on the floor—Molly had been throwing again.
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “It’s just me. No yelling or poking.” I cleaned the crap from the floor, then sprinkled some cinnamon in a corner of the shift cage to distract her while I cleaned her cage. She spent a long time sniffing the new scent until it was time to shift back to the main cage.
When I finished with the cleaning and the fecal sample, I turned back to the white suit. Slowly, so Molly could see what I was doing, I slipped the top over my jumpsuit. She jumped and hooted for a few minutes—she certainly remembered that white suits were something bad. Eventually though, when I rattled the biscuit box, she settled down for target training despite my attire.
Molly practiced touching her nose to the target until she’d eaten all the bits of biscuits. She was bright enough to try to get extra treats by touching her nose to the bars even when I hadn’t given the “target” command, and she yelled her frustration at me when I didn’t fall for it.
“Nice try, Molly,” I said, “but I’m training you, not the other way around.” Her intelligent eyes showed me she was pondering new ways to con me out of treats.
At a noise at the door, Molly screeched and ran to a corner.
Rico stood in the doorway, leery of coming within throwing range. “Hey, Kennedy. I thought I’d better check on you. To see if you’re beating up anyone else.”
“Not today. You’re safe. As long as you don’t abuse Molly.”
He sidled in far enough to shut the door. “You shouldn’t judge Bert. He may not have any patience with the monkey, but he’s a good guy—he helped me get this job.”
“You knew him from before?”
“He knew my dad.” Rico’s voice wavered, just a little, on the word dad. “Bert used to be a chemistry teacher, but once they closed all the schools, the only job he could get was lab tech. You don’t know what it’s like, to be smart and skilled but people treat you like dirt.” He looked around the primate lab like it was a trap and he was the rat.
Molly hooted, mugging for more treats.
“Sorry, Molly,” I said. “That’s enough for today.” I held up my empty hands to show Molly the treats were gone.
Molly eeked in disappointment. She waved her long arms, leaped up to grab the top of the cage, dangled for a moment, and then fell to the platform with a loud slap of hands and feet.
Rico backed farther away. “You speak enough chimp to know what that means?”
I laughed. “She’d like to boss me around for a while, I guess.”
Rico stroked his chin thoughtfully, as if he had a beard. “I’ll say this for you, she’s a lot quieter than usual. You might work out after all, Kennedy.”
That sounded like a good opening to push for Plan B. “Paula said Molly’s going into isolation in a few weeks, and I won’t be able to take care of her anymore. Could you give me some pointers on learning the lab work? I’d rather help out in the lab than get stuck with the babies.”
He laughed. “You? Work in the lab? You’re lucky they let you clean the monkey cage.”
“I’m good at science. Ahead in math too. Paula was going to make me her lab assistant if we’d stayed at the zoo.”
“This is a real lab, not a stinky old zoo.” He tapped a foot thoughtfully. “But if you want some pointers…Look, I help you, you help me, right? Put in a good word for me with Reyna. She’s always with Chubb—I never get a chance to talk to her alone.”
Oh. He was more interested in Reyna than in helping me. That figured—she was pretty and feminine and artistic. I cleaned up poop. But if boosting Rico’s chances would get me closer to a real lab job…
“All right. I’ll tell her what a prince you are.”
“Thanks, Kennedy. But be discreet, you know? Subtle.”
When I fetched Barney from the dog run before lunch, I heard baby-squeals coming from the courtyard. Chubb and Reyna were there with the kids, Reyna pushing a pink-jacketed Deedee in a baby swing.
“Here you go, buddy. Catch it!” Chubb rolled a colorful ball to Gabe, seated on the ground in a pale blue parka and red knit hat. It bounced off him, and Gabe squealed again.
The day was gray and damp, almost cold enough to freeze the puddles, but at least the courtyard was out of the wind.
Barney pulled excitedly at the leash, and I let him go snuffle at the babies’ butts and everyone else’s shoes. Chubb bent his lean frame down to rub Barney’s ears and let the dog lick his freckled face. Barney wagged ecstatically, a wriggling black whirlwind of happiness.
Try to make friends, Paula had said, so I told Chubb and Reyna about my training session with Molly.
“Big deal,” Chubb said. “So you got a chimp to stick her nose at you.”
That made me laugh. “Wait till Gabe’s a little older, then tell me how easy it is to train a primate. That reminds me…how can I get a blanket for Molly? Our chimp at the zoo loved his.”
Reyna wrinkled her nose. “You gotta ask Tilly Rasmussen.”
“Oh. Could you ask her for me? She might not like me very much right now, since I squealed on her husband for hurting Molly.”
“No way. She’s always on me to repent my evil ways an’ tellin’ me I’m gonna get knocked up.”
“A lot of people are religious these days. And as for warning you,” I glanced at her and Chubb, “that’s not unreasonable. After all, your bedrooms are right across from each other.”
“That’s not an issue,” Chubb said. Reyna said nothing.
“Well, good,” I said. “Because I think Rico likes Reyna.” Subtlety is overrated.
Reyna lifted Deedee to her hip. “You can tell Rico: No. Way. Ever.” She walked to the door to go inside.
I turned to Chubb for an explanation.
Chubb winked. “Tell Rico he and I are out of luck, as far as Reyna’s concerned. Wrong gender.”
“Ah,” I said, enlightened. At least I could do Rico the favor of correcting his assumption about Reyna’s sexual orientation. “Thanks.”
“And I’ll grab a blanket for you—I know where they’re kept. Bert and Tilly are off duty for a day or two, getting virtual counseling.”
Count on Chubb to know everybody’s business.
When Chubb and Gabe went in, I took a happy Barney back to the primate lab cage. Molly sniffed him suspiciously and gave me a hurt look. Why did her dog smell of strange humans?
“Chill, Molly. He still loves you best.”
At the after-lunch training session, I showed Molly and Barney the fleece blanket Chubb had snagged. It was a kid’s pattern, pink and blue balloons. Wearing the white suit, I held the blanket for Molly to see and said soothing things. She eyed me warily from the corners of her eyes, head half-ducked, ready to flee—as if there was anywhere to flee to.
Moving slowly, I folded the blanket and stuffed it into one of the ports. It lay in a pile at the side of the cage.
Molly stared aggressively at the strange heap of blue and pink that had invaded her space. She stretched her lips back to show her teeth in a nervous warning. Barney caught her tension and barked once.
“Just a blanket, Molly. Nothing to worry about.”
Barney strolled over to sniff the blanket, making Molly whimper with anxiety. The black lab looked back at her and wagged reassuringly.
Barney’s courage inspired her—with a yell, Molly ran over and stomped on the pink and blue balloons.
When the blanket didn’t bite back, Molly slung it around and tried to rip it up. Eventually she settled down to carrying it around. It wasn’t exactly play, but it was something different for her to explore.
I was getting ready to go wash up when Molly shrieked loud enough to split my ears.
Rico hesitated in the doorway. He held a small toolbox-like carrier, with vials and gauze and syringes, and wore blue latex gloves.
Molly wasn’t witless. She knew what that meant. She ran s
creeching from one end of the cage to the other, literally bouncing off the cage walls, slinging the blanket around. Barney joined the fray, barking excitedly.
“Quinn’s coming to draw some blood,” Rico said. “You said you could manage her, so do it. What’s with the blanket?”
“Enrichment. Something for her to play with.”
Rico pulled the jab stick from the wall. Molly whimpered and cringed in a corner. Barney barked protectively.
I put some monkey biscuits in a cup and jiggled it to distract Molly. Molly followed me, dragging the blanket, and held out her hand for a treat.
“Target, Molly.” She touched her nose to the target and was rewarded.
Rico placed a loaded syringe onto the jab stick. Molly watched him, eyes wide, hooting in anxiety despite my soothing noises.
“Don’t worry, Molly,” I said. “I’m here. It will just be a moment.”
Stay still, the white suits had told me. This won’t hurt. Everything will be fine.
To distract myself, I said, “I found out about your chances with Reyna—she’s gay.”
Rico made a disgusted noise. “Just my luck. The only pretty girl here and she’s a lez. No wonder my charm wasn’t working.”
Thanks, Rico. I felt like throwing poop at him myself. I gritted my teeth and told myself to stay on his good side—there were already enough people who didn’t like me.
He took a step toward the cage. Molly eeked and Barney whined.
“It’s all right, girl. A little jab is all, then a nice nap.” I was about as convincing as the white suits had been, back when I was sick.
Rico came close, holding the jab stick like a spear. Molly shrieked and drew the blanket over her head. Barney barked.
“Barney, sit. Target, Molly.” Molly jerked her head, trying to touch the target and watch Rico at the same time. “Good girl.”
I handed her the biscuit as Rico jabbed. Molly let out a single scream and cowered under her blanket.
Rico yawned. “Now we just wait. She’ll fall asleep soon. She always fusses when we dart her, but she’s not really hurt. It’s just like vaccinating a baby—lots of crying but no real harm being done.”