Sydney left her two companions to puzzle over the new variable.
“Dude, I would marry that girl right now,” said Johnny.
“Definitely,” Garrett agreed. “I mean how many girls out there are not only cool enough to weigh in on a guy debate but trump both our arguments?”
“There can be only one,” Johnny said. “And Mrs. Sydney Hickey shall be her name.”
Garrett laughed.
The afternoon brought on a surprising amount of humidity for April. The zoo employees must have sensed it too; they turned on the sprinkler park usually reserved for summer months. The trio of friends stopped for some ice cream to beat the heat. Garrett made a mental note to file away that Sydney ordered mixed coconut and caramel flavors.
Of course, that meant Johnny ordered the same thing she did.
Garrett asked for his signature strawberry and vanilla swirl. The first frigid spoonful hurt his teeth and stuck to his tongue. He didn’t mind so long as he could still taste both the tart and the sweet. He had just finished his bowl when they passed the five-storied dolphin pavilion on their way back to the aquariums. The building’s logo—a bottlenose dolphin—grinned down at him.
“Wait!” Sydney stopped them. She tossed her bowl in the nearest trashcan and whipped out her trusty trivia sheet. “Questions fifteen and thirty on our quiz. What type of animal does the Indianapolis Zoo specialize in housing that most other zoos do not? And, which animal’s name means ‘one who walks with its teeth’ in Greek?”
Why is she looking at me like I’ll actually know the answer? Garrett shrugged.
She pointed to a sign and, Sydney being Sydney, ran over to read the information aloud. “Walruses are known for their tusks. In fact, the walrus family name originates from the Greek word ‘Obobenidea,’ which means ‘one who walks with his teeth.’
While walruses don’t walk with their teeth, they use their tusks like weapons during the breeding season. Only nine separate institutions in North America house walrus, with the Indianapolis Zoo being the most prestigious in terms of specializing in walrus care and reproduction. To date, there have been two walrus pups born at the zoo.”
“Wow!” Johnny said. “Good eyes, Syd!”
Garrett scrawled down the answers on his trivia sheet. “Her mom works here, Hickey. She’s probably seen that sign a hundred times.”
Sydney stuck her tongue out at him.
Garrett walked to the edge of the paddock and looked over the side. Fifteen yards below, he saw a pair of walrus. Their wrinkled, reddish-brown skin made it easy to identify against the rocky grey surroundings.
“Doesn’t she look like a big pillow?” Sydney asked, sidling up next to Garrett.
Johnny squeezed his way in between them. “Totally. That guy is ginormus!”
“She’s a girl, Johnny,” said Sydney.
“How can you tell?”
“Well, Hickey,” said Garrett. “Boy walruses have a pe—”
A zoo employee cleared her throat. She pointed to a pair of children who had just walked up.
“Sorry,” Garrett said. He jerked his head in Johnny’s direction. “Some of us don’t know the differences between boys and girls yet.”
The zoo employee ambled toward them. “How’s it going, Sydney?”
“Angie!”
“Hi,” Angie answered. “I heard you’d be here on a field trip today. Don’t you ever get sick of this place?”
“You know me,” Sydney said. “Couldn’t keep me out if you tried.”
“I believe that. So,” Angie said. “You guys want to know an easy way to tell the sex of a walrus? The females are smaller than males.”
Johnny stepped up a rung on the wooden barrier to gain a clearer view at the exhibit. “If she’s the small one then where is the big guy?”
“Oh, he’s in there,” said Angie. “Just keep watching. The others should be coming out to feed them anytime now.”
Garrett joined Johnny. “I can’t imagine something bigger than that walrus already in there.”
“I hear that. No way something that big can stay hidden down there for so long.”
Five minutes went by until another employee emerged from a poorly disguised employee entry point in the rock siding. The employee carried a tin full of clams with him and tossed a couple onto the deck.
The loud clatter of their shells instantly drew the attention of the female. She flipped to her stomach and waddled her lower half back and forth to reach the food. Sticking out her tongue, she promptly sucked the shells up.
Whoa! That’s awesome.
Then Garrett saw the male emerge from the water. Twice the female’s size, his head resembled an old bald man’s, wrinkled and splotched a deeper shade of brown that the rest of his warty neck and body. A pair of three-feet long ivory tusks descended from his upper jaw like two icicles. The loose skin around his throat jiggled as he loosed a deep, thunderous roar that would have put the lions to shame.
“That’s Brutus,” said Angie. “He weighed in over twenty-five hundred pounds when we got him on the scale a few months ago.”
Got him on a scale? They’d need a forklift to move that thing!
Brutus slid to the clams and shoved the female away with his head. He greedily stole any more thrown onto the deck and made loud belches in between as if telling the employee to give him more. It didn’t take long for the clams to run out.
Garrett watched Brutus sniff around the now empty pail and the employee’s pockets, before resigning himself to the pool. He slipped his massive girth back into the water with surprisingly little splash and vanished.
“That…was…crazy!” Johnny said.
With the show over, Garrett and his friends said their goodbyes to Angie and moved on to the aquarium exhibits. He had always thought the aquarium entrance pretty sweet, modeled to resemble a cave. As soon as the doors swooshed open, Garrett felt pitched into total darkness as air conditioning that reeked of fish blasted him in the face.
“Ugh!” Johnny said. “Somebody order anchovies?”
Garrett felt someone brush past him. Sydney. Of course she knows the way and doesn’t have to wait for her eyes to adjust.
Garrett fumbled for the handrail then made his way down the ramp and turned the corner. He found Sydney in front of a tank filled with stingrays.
The flat, fleshy creatures seemed to move effortlessly with only the slightest rippling wave on the outer rim of their bodies to suggest they did more than float. Most varied in shades of light to dark grey. A few had golden spots doppling their otherwise black hides. Still others looked brown with yellowish, flowery designs across their backs.
Garrett caught Sydney glancing at him. She smiled, and her teeth seemed to glow in the pale light. She turned back, placed her hand flat against the aquarium pane.
A brownish ray emerged from the sandy white floor like she had called it. Then it vanished to the back of the tank with a quick swish of its pointy tail. Another glided upward near Garrett’s face like the ray wanted to show off its white underbelly and opposing rows of gill slits.
A little girl pressed her way in front of Garrett. “Look, Mommy!” she said. “That one’s belly looks like a smiley face!”
“Yo, Weaves!” Johnny called. “This thing has two sets of eyes!”
“Huh?”
“Check it out.”
“Weaver! I’m serious! Look at that one there.” Johnny pointed to a bluish ray swimming in front of Garrett. “That one has eyes on its head, right? The one I just saw had eyes above its mouth! There it is again! Look!”
Garrett saw a ray with two small holes, opening and closing, just above its mouth.
Sydney chuckled. “I said the same thing to my mom when I was younger. I asked her if they were eyes so the ray could look down while it swam.”
“Is that what they’re for?”
“No. They’re called nares. It’s his nose. Above his mouth, just like ours.”
“Cool.” Garrett said. “But
I know a place that’s even better.” He clapped Johnny on the shoulder. “Come on! Let’s go pet some sharks!”
Johnny shrunk back. “Pet one?”
“It’s okay, Hickey,” said Sydney. “They don’t bite. Even little kids do it. You’ll see.”
Garrett raced ahead without them. The shark pool had been his favorite part of the aquarium since he first discovered it. When first he saw it, he thought it maybe a foot deep. Only after sticking his arm in did he learn it to be around three feet deep. Garrett watched the dog sharks swim. To his mind, they looked like scaled-up versions of cleaner fish that spent their lives sucking on aquarium walls.
He typically found the area packed. Today, he saw only a few people around. Everybody’s probably lining up for the dolphin show.
He rolled up his sleeve and dunked his arm until the water reached just above his elbow.
Garrett relaxed his fingers and tried not to move them. His dad had taught him not to look down else the water would play tricks with his eyes.
A second later, something slimy and smooth grazed the back of his hand.
He looked through the glass, saw the shark swim around his hand, investigating.
Oh man, Sydney and Johnny have to see this! Garrett glanced up from the pool. He gasped. What’s Eddie Bennett doing here? I thought Johnny said he was suspended.
Suspended or no, Eddie Bennett had just entered the jelly exhibit. Bryce Tardiff and Juan Marrero followed him in. All three split away from one another and went different directions.
Garrett pulled his arm from the tank. Crap. They find me here, I’m a dead man. He crouched to keep them from seeing him. What do I do?
He saw an emergency exit behind him, but knew that would trigger an alarm. Left would lead him back around the pool and into plain sight. A darkened doorway to his right promised entry to another area. Garrett couldn’t remember what exhibit though.
Have to chance it.
He scurried through the entryway. Once he cleared the corner, Garrett saw he had entered the Galápagos Sea Lion exhibit and that he shared the exhibit with no one else. This isn’t good. I need to find some place with people.
The clear pane in front of him stood at least fifteen feet high and sixty feet long. The water on the opposite side ran all the way up to the very tip of the ceiling, giving him perspective of the underwater surroundings.
A pair of sea lions appeared from the opposite wall, seemingly out of the rock face. They swam past the window until both disappeared where the windowpane ended. Both returned a few seconds later. They swam so close to the glass that Garrett felt like he could reach out and touch them. One of them spun around and around, putting on a show.
Garrett laughed.
“Think they’re funny, do ya?” came an unfamiliar voice in the dark.
Garrett had watched enough movies to recognize a Boston accent when he heard one. It sounded angry. Almost like the person wanted a fight.
He turned, fully expecting to find a muscle-faced mob guy who doubled as an animal rights activist behind him. Instead, he saw a dwarf wearing earrings and a sweet-looking black hoodie with white circles embroidered on it.
Barely four feet tall, Garrett almost mistook the little teen for a kid. His swagger warned it would be a costly error.
The dwarf stepped into the pale light and saw Garrett plainly. His glare melted away. “Whoa-I’m…I’m sorry, okay,” the dwarf fell to his knees. “I-I didn’t know ya kind was out here too.”
My kind? Garrett looked around the room to see if the dwarf mistook him for someone else. He saw no one. Garrett turned back around, took a step closer.
“What do you mean my kind?”
LENNY
Is he foolin’ with me? Like to play with his food before he eats it?
Lenny cautioned a glance at the Orc.
“Can I help you up?” the Orc asked, extending an open hand.
Lenny warily took it and stood. Something’s not right here.
“What did you mean by my kind?”
“Huh?” Lenny said.
“My kind. You said you didn’t know my kind was out here too. What did you mean by that?”
Can he really not know?
“Garrett!”
When the Orc looked up, Lenny filed the name to memory.
An Asian girl stood in the doorway between the sea lion exhibit and the shark pool. She hurried over, joined by a fat kid who struggled to keep up with her. The girl’s eyes flitted back and forth between Garrett and Lenny. Something about her smelled funny, familiar and yet not.
Lenny could make no sense of it. None of the teens wore Selkie suits or crystal-stud earrings. And unlike the Orc, the two newcomers’ skin tones didn’t give them away as Salt Children.
Could be Merrows. Lenny reasoned. He clutched his hidden dagger tighter. “Ya know this guy?”
“Of course we do,” the girl said. “Who are you?”
“Depends on who’s askin’. What’s ya name, doll face?”
“Hey!” said Garrett. “You can’t talk to her like that!”
Lenny grinned. He really don’t know what he is. No way an Orc would lemme talk to his girl like that. “What’s wrong? Ya girlfriend can’t stand up for herself?”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Yeah, but ya still want her, don’t ya?”
“I’m sorry,” said the girl. “I don’t want to seem rude—”
“You’re not being rude, Sydney. He is!”
“Garrett, would you stop! I’m just trying to explain this is all a misunderstanding.”
The fat boy shifted. “Come on, Weaver. Settle down.”
“Shut up, Hickey!”
They don’t even realize what they’re givin’ me. Lenny made mental notes of each of their names. He watched the boys continue to argue. Both seemed to forget Lenny even stood there. Yep. They’re Drybacks.
“Look, I got it now,” Lenny said. “How ‘bout we just part ways here. Sound good?”
The fat one struggled to place a piece of gum in his mouth. “It does to me.”
Lenny left the punk teens behind and didn’t stop until he reached the end of the exhibit. He exited the building, the beginnings of a new plan formulating in his mind.
Now outside, he saw a bottlenose dolphin logo grin down at him, almost like it could read his mind. Visitors had formed a line that stretched around the corner. Lenny crossed to the opposite side and used the taller persons like a wall to shield him.
He headed west and tried to ignore those who pointed at seeing a little person walk beside them. The children didn’t bother him as much as the teens. Don’t make a scene. Keep calm. Lenny quickened his pace.
Suddenly, his head filled with the overlapping voices of his crew.
She’s here, Len! Paulo said.
I see Marisa! Chidi’s voice cut in.
Where? Lenny said, much more calmly than he felt. Which exhibit?
Deserts, Paulo said.
“Whattaya doin’ in the deserts?” Lenny said so loud a man in line turned to look at him. So much for not drawin’ attention, ya hothead! Lenny kept moving. His earrings flashed. Paulie, whattaya doin’ in the deserts? She’s a Silkie, not a lizard!
Thought you only had eyes for Ellie, Racer’s voice chimed in. You were following that Brazilian girl from the academy again, weren’t you?
Never mind that, Paulo said. I can see her, Len.
Lenny unfolded his zoo map. He found the overturned, bowl-shaped desert logo a bit further west than the dolphin pavilion. Good. Hold tight and keep eyes on her. Cheeds, ya anywhere near to give him backup?
I’m already with Paulo, she answered.
Yeah, thanks for the trust in me, by the way, said Paulo. Really appreciate you having her tail me this whole time.
Shuddup, Paulie. I’m tryin’ to think. Lenny studied the map. Racer, where ya at?
Almost there. Tell me where to go.
Take the exit ramp. I’ll get the entry. What’
s the Dryback situation in there?
Empty, said Paulo. Too hot for any sane person to hang around.
Good, Lenny said. Now listen up. Paulie, Cheeds, split up and work both ends of that semi-circle. If ya can’t grab her, flush her out to Racer.
What about Oscar and Henry?
Don’t worry ‘bout it, Lenny said. He shoved the map back in his pocket and power-walked toward the Deserts.
Find a place to hide and don’t get pinned down. He repeated one of his father’s mantras. Lenny spotted a lemonade vendor with a line of customers. He joined the back for a vantage point and looked through the exhibit’s glass doors from afar. All right, I’m here and waitin’. Racer, ya ready?
Here, Racer said. She’s not getting anywhere without going through me!
Lenny took a deep breath. Flush her.
Thirty seconds of silence went by.
Lenny wiped his palms on his pants. Come on. Come on…
What’s takin’ so long?
She moved into another area, Chidi said. Paulo, over by the rattlesnakes.
I’m standing right in front of the rattlesnakes!
No, the southwest corner…see her?
Ah, Paulo said. Walking up now…
Get her, Paulie. Lenny’s fingers danced at his side. Grab her and let’s go home.
Oh— Chidi said. Paulo’s down! Paulo’s down!
What? Racer said. What’s going on? Cap, do we go—
Racer, stay at ya post! Lenny ordered. Talk to me, Cheeds.
She went through some kind of employee exit! I can—I can’t get through it. Ugh! It—It’s locked.
Which way?
Near the meerkat door!
Lenny pulled his map out, saw an iguana image in the bottom left corner, a rattlesnake at the top, and the meerkat image right next to—
She’s goin’ for the pavilion!
A side door flew open. Marisa Bourgeois bolted out, her brown Silkie hood fluttering behind her neck like a tiny cape.
Lenny gave chase.
Marisa disappeared behind a concrete inlet full of parked baby strollers and kiddy carts shaped like animals.
Don’t let her get inside and blend with the crowd! Lenny ran for the front entrance to cut her off. Both came around the restroom corner at the same time. Lenny dove, caught one of her ankles. He used his momentum to roll, twisting her foot beneath him.
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