by Rula Sinara
“Jack, you don’t have to go to the car. You could just wait out here,” Anna said. “I can go get you a cold soda or something.”
“Do you have any idea how resistant the strains of hospital microbes are? Pippa shouldn’t be here. She’s used to fresh air,” he said, but Anna knew it wasn’t the real reason he wanted to wait outside.
Her parents had never liked him. But a parent was a parent. And Jack had seen his die from needles up their arms. How could Anna not have thought of that when he’d agreed to come along with her for moral support?
She put her hand on his arm. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good.” He pushed the elevator button impatiently. “Pippa and I just need some fresh air. We’ll meet you downstairs.” He was in the elevator before the doors fully opened.
“Okay. I won’t be long,” she said.
She walked in on Mary kissing her dad’s cheek and holding his hand to her chest. Both looked up at the sound of her footsteps.
“Um, I just wanted to say bye. I’ll be in touch to see how you’re doing.”
“Thank you. Take care of my granddaughter,” he added. Anna couldn’t help but read into his words, Take care of your brother. She blinked twice. No. She was not taking after her mom. She wasn’t going to get paranoid about everything. “I always do, Dad. And just so you know, Jack is an intelligent man who is well-respected in his field. If and when you want to see Pippa during her visits here, he’ll be the one who’ll be bringing her to see you. So please, be nice.”
Her dad grumbled. “We’ll see,” he said.
She hesitated before going over and kissing him on the cheek. “Get well.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Mary said.
Anna smiled briefly and turned away, as eager as Jack had been to get out of there, and in knots from her efforts to reach out. Her dad just didn’t care. He was clueless, oblivious to what he’d done to his first wife.
“Anna. Please wait.” Mary had followed her out of the room. Anna dried the tears from her eyes before turning around.
“Yes?”
“I was hoping I could talk to you for just a minute. I know how difficult this must be, meeting me like this,” Mary said.
“Yes,” Anna murmured. She couldn’t lie. Besides, the tension was obvious.
Mary wrung her hands and glanced downward, as if trying to find words. “I think you should know that nothing happened before the divorce. Out of respect for another woman, I made sure of that.”
Anna wrapped her arms around her waist and frowned. So they’d met while her parents were married? They’d connected on an emotional level, betraying Anna and her mom long before the divorce was announced and Anna became pregnant. Mary had no idea how much worse that made accepting her as her dad’s wife. Anna looked up at the fluorescent panels overhead and waited a few seconds for her tears to slip unnoticed down the back of her throat.
“I’m trying to clear the air, because I’d love for us to be comfortable with one another,” Mary said.
Anna nodded and swallowed hard, trying to keep her composure. She sniffed and wished she hadn’t run out of tissues in her purse.
“I appreciate that, but I can’t do this right now,” she said.
“Right. I should let you go. Jack and Pippa are waiting for you.”
Anna nodded and started to leave.
“Mary? Take care of him...and good luck.”
* * *
JACK SAT ON A BENCH in the front lawn of the hospital and unwrapped a granola bar he’d bought, along with a carton of milk, in the hospital lobby, and handed it to Pippa. He was sipping on an ice-cold can of ginger ale. Jack didn’t do hospitals unless he didn’t have a choice. Same with needles. If anyone knew that he, Dr. Jack Harper—grown man, accomplished scientist—hyperventilated every time he had so much as a flu shot, they’d drown in tears of laughter. Getting vaccinated for that trip to Kenya had given him nightmares. And being in that hospital room...the chemical smells, the IV...the moment of panic when he’d thought Anna’s dad was having another heart attack. One that could have killed him right then and there. In front of him. In front of Pippa. That did him in. He’d wanted to be there for Anna. He’d wanted to support her, and he didn’t last.
He took another long swig of ginger ale and watched Pippa play under the overhanging oak tree. A cool breeze fluttered the branches and soothed his senses. Pippa had taken to collecting acorns. They were currently at a pile of twenty and counting.
“Look, Daddy! Dis one is bigger. I want to take dem back for Ambosi. Dis one is for Ambosi and dis one is for Haki.” Pippa picked the two largest and set them apart.
Jack glanced up automatically, half expecting a monkey to chuck an acorn at him. A squirrel chittered, obviously annoyed that someone was raiding its tree, and scampered off. Jack was safe.
That Ambosi had a way of sticking in one’s mind. Jack realized Pippa was homesick.
“I don’t think they’ll let you take those on the plane.”
“Uncle Mac lets me take things on his chopper.” Pippa pouted. No doubt those adorable chipmunk cheeks had Mac caving to her pleas a time or two.
Uncle Mac. Jack didn’t know much about Mac and Anna’s history. The man was clearly fond of her. What if he was the one for her? Her John Wayne? They lived in the same place and worked for common goals. Maybe they were in love and Jack showing up had thrown a wrench in their plans. For as much as he hated Jack, Mr. Bekker was right. If Anna’s heart was in Kenya, there wasn’t any point in trying to convince her to marry him. She’d said no twice already. The thing was, he didn’t want another man raising Pippa. He’d be forever grateful that his adoptive parents had saved him from the life he’d been born into, but Jack was here, and able. He wanted to be a father. A great one. And the look on his parents’ faces when he’d brought them Pippa said it all. He’d made them happy. He’d given back to them. Finally.
Anna joined them on the bench, the acorn pile separating them. Pippa took a sip of milk, then ran for more acorns.
“You okay?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. I’m good. I will be, anyhow,” Anna said. She smiled at the collection of nuts. “What about you?”
He shrugged.
“I’m sorry, Jack. I wasn’t thinking. Why didn’t you just say you don’t like hospitals? It didn’t occur to me that it would still bother you, after all the lab stuff you do.”
“Guess I thought I could handle it.”
Anna sighed and eyed his soda. “Do you think you can handle dinner?”
“If you’re hungry enough. I can handle anything. Just not that,” Jack said, thumbing over his shoulder toward the hospital building.
They watched Pippa in silence, except for the exuberant praise they gave when she reached thirty acorns, counting aloud. And she’d skipped only one number. Maybe there was a little scientist in her.
He looked at Anna. She seemed deep in thought. He’d told her about his mom’s call when they were headed to the hospital, and that he’d left the evening free.
“Do you want to go to a restaurant or eat in? We could stop and pick up a DVD, one for us and one Pippa can watch in the morning...or not.” He didn’t mean to imply that DVD babysitting was acceptable. Once in a while couldn’t hurt, but he couldn’t read Anna’s reaction.
“Eating in sounds good,” she said with a smile.
“Any particular movie you want to see?”
Anna laughed halfheartedly and stopped Pippa’s fortieth acorn from rolling off the bench.
“Jack, I haven’t seen a movie in six years, if you count how busy the end of vet school was. Take your pick. I don’t even know what’s been released since then.”
Jack mulled that one over. She was right. Busara didn’t even have a television. No marketing influence on the kid
s, no need for parental controls. And considering how difficult their internet connection was, she probably didn’t waste time on it for fun. As for a movie, he knew just the one.
“I think I have one in mind,” Jack said. “I, um, have to check in at the lab tomorrow, just briefly in the morning. I want to make sure everything is under control. Then I was thinking—do you remember that wildlife park we used to go to as kids?”
Anna’s face lit up. “The one with the blind tiger? Yes. What about it?”
“I thought we’d take Pippa there tomorrow. It would feel a little more like ‘normal’ to her than shopping malls and hospitals.”
Maybe help her homesickness. Jack wanted this to feel like home to her.
“That sounds wonderful.” Anna’s eyes glistened, but she pretended to look at a car backing out of its spot, and dried the corner of her eye with her fingertip. She sighed and rubbed her hands along her thighs. “This has been quite a day.”
“We should leave before the squirrels amass an army to chase us off,” Jack said.
“We should,” Anna agreed. “Ready, Pippa?”
“We need to take these,” she answered, hugging her pile of acorns. Several rolled to the ground.
“We can’t take them all, honey,” Jack said.
“Sweetie, I bet the squirrels who live in this tree are so thankful that you helped them gather nuts. You saved them a lot of trouble and energy,” Anna remarked.
“But I want to take some for Haki and Ambosi.” Pippa’s chin wrinkled and started to shake. Oh, no.
“I’ll tell you what,” Jack said. “Why don’t you take those two big ones and we’ll plant them. There’s a little park where I live, and we can plant them there—one for Ambosi and one for Haki. You could even name the trees they grow into.” He didn’t know if the seeds would take, but he’d be sure to go buy two seedlings and plant them for her. She’d never know.
“But they won’t see dem!”
“I’ll take a picture and send it to them. How’s that?” He pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of her on the verge of crying. That was a keeper. Then he snapped one of her pile of acorns. “See, look at that. Here’s your pile, and when the trees grow, we can take a picture of them the same way,” he said, showing her the phone screen.
Her chin quivered a little more, followed by a sniff, then a concession. She wrapped her hand around two acorns and pressed her face against Anna. Time to go before she changed her mind.
* * *
JACK WAS LEARNING. He ended up ordering Chinese takeout because steamed rice seemed like a safe bet for Pippa. And Anna had approved. Pippa had fallen asleep shortly after they ate.
“We forgot to stop for a movie,” Anna said, pouring two mugs of decaf coffee and carrying them to the living room.
“I already have one I thought we could watch.” Jack opened the cabinet under the TV and pulled out a DVD case. He handed it to her from his crouched position, figuring she might want something else. “I could run out and grab one of the recent flicks you missed if you’d rather.”
Anna took the case from him and her lips parted the second she recognized it. She flipped it over and ran her thumb over the old Scotch tape he’d used when the plastic cover had ripped.
“My copy of Hatari!,” she said. “I can’t believe it. I thought I’d lost it.”
“You forgot it at my place the week before graduation. We never got around to watching it that time, so I hung on to it for you.” Jack shrugged. “We don’t have to watch it again.” He’d seen it more than once with her, and was certain she’d seen it more than that.
“Are you kidding me? This is perfect, Jack! Thank you.” She handed him the case, then, without warning, bent over and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Heat rose in Jack’s face and he touched his cheek in surprise. Anna froze with her mouth open. She might have acted on impulse, but he was not letting her apologize for that.
Jack grinned. “Why thank me?” he drawled, in his best imitation of Sean Mercer’s response to Dallas, thanking him for letting her keep the baby elephant.
Anna shoved his shoulder and laughed. He fell onto his rear and stayed there with his elbows hooked around his knees, watching her settle in with her bittersweet coffee.
This was like old times, with the added bonus of Pippa snuggled in pink bliss. But just because something felt right didn’t mean it was meant to be forever, and Jack had learned early on never to look back. The only option left was to save their friendship.
And this was a start.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE WILDLIFE PARK featured a small, zoolike section near the entrance that included a petting area with goats, sheep and one character of a donkey. Next to the petting area was a small arena where visitors could pay extra for camel and pony rides. Pippa cackled like a monkey and said her pony needed diapers when he stopped to pee while she was still on his back. That kid was a hoot. Older bystanders were commenting on how she reminded them of Shirley Temple.
The rest of the acreage consisted of a stay-in-your-car driving tour of some larger animals in a more natural setting. Overall, the place looked like it needed some upgrades. There were some families around, but nothing like the crowds that Jack and Anna used to dodge as teens.
It was much more tame than Jack recalled. The driving tour was fun, but it was a mere suburban backyard compared to driving around Busara. Funny how perspectives changed. Still, it was fun remembering and recognizing things, and Pippa seemed to be enjoying it. So far, things were looking good and going according to plan.
Jack paid for a bag of popcorn and took it over to Anna and Pippa, who sat on a bench in front of a spider monkey cage. Ambosi would go mad if he was caged like that. Jack didn’t know where that had come from. Ambosi didn’t even like him.
Anna took the bag of popcorn from Jack. “Thanks.”
“We should look for the owner and say hi,” he suggested. Jack scanned the area. He didn’t recognize anyone.
“I guess we could.” Anna let Pippa grab a handful of popcorn. “Why don’t we go see if he’s at the main ticket booth?”
Anna took Pippa by the hand and followed Jack. He doubled back and held Pippa’s other hand.
“Ready? One. Two. Three,” he said. Anna caught on and they swung Pippa into the air for one giant leap. She cracked up.
“Again,” she said.
“One. Two. Three. And up.”
“Again!” she demanded.
After three more “agains” they’d reached the kiosk where they’d bought their tickets on arrival. They hadn’t seen the owner then, but if anyone knew where he was, they’d be here. It wasn’t the biggest deal. Mr. Chase seemed to recall who they were after a few reminders Jack had given over the phone. Anna didn’t know they’d spoken and he’d asked Mr. Chase to keep it that way.
“Well, I’ll be,” a voice said from their right. “I haven’t seen you two in ages.”
A man who looked to be in his sixties stopped in front of them. Mr. Chase. He’d lost the hair on top of his head but still wore one long braid—now silver—over his shoulder. He’d put on some weight, too.
“Didn’t you two used to come around here every other weekend during summers? And you—” He pointed to Anna. “You went to veterinary school, didn’t you?”
“Um, yeah,” she said, cocking her head. “How’d you know? I can’t believe you remembered us.”
Jack gave his head a subtle shake and hoped Mr. Chase would catch on. The man cleared his throat.
“Oh, word gets around. You know how it is. Besides, not many folks came here as routinely as you did. Your faces became a fixture here,” he said. “And who is this cutie?”
“This is our daughter, Pippa,” Jack said.
“Pippa, did you know your mommy and daddy used t
o come around here all the time?” Mr. Chase asked.
She shook her head.
“Well, you come by as much as you like, squirt. Bring your mama along. You know, I won’t be open much longer,” Mr. Chase said.
“You’re closing?” Anna asked.
He scratched the back of his head as he looked wistfully at the park’s dated attractions. He sighed and returned his attention to Anna, Jack and “squirt.”
“I’m losing money. Have been for a while. My staff is getting older and the younger generation has better things to do. They don’t unplug long enough to spend time with nature. They watch wildlife shows in HD. Just like the real thing, right? And my parents need someone around full time. Age-related dementia. They live in Seattle. I’ll be moving out there. Probably retire in the family home.”
“Sorry to hear about your parents and the loss here,” Anna said. “This place will be missed. What’ll happen to the animals?”
Okay, she was curious. That was promising. She cared. It didn’t matter where on the planet she found an animal in need. Anna cared, and she wasn’t the type to stand by and watch.
“I honestly don’t know. Guess that depends on who buys the place.” Chase stated.
“That makes sense,” Anna said.
Well, didn’t it? Jack stood there in nerve-racked limbo, trying to get a solid read on her. Anna bit the corner of her lip as she looked down and looped her fingers through the curls on Pippa’s head. Jack took a slow, deep breath. He was right. They were thinking along the same wavelength.
“I wonder if one of the wildlife organizations or rescue groups could help out? Maybe put you in touch with a facility or person that can place the animals in good care,” she said.
So not quite the same wavelength. Jack let out his breath.
“I’m on it,” Mr. Chase said.
Anna nodded and gave him a bright smile. “It was so nice to see you again, Mr. Chase. Jack, it’s time to get home. I think Pippa is going to go sloth on us any second. We’re way past naptime.” Anna shook Mr. Chase’s hand and Jack followed suit with a quick nod.