Vampires Never Get Old - Zoraida Cordova Page 0,59

She opened the window and stepped inside. Pill bottles littered the surface of the nightstand, and the room smelled like stale smoke.

But she must not have been as quiet as she’d hoped, because her father’s eyes opened. “Judy?” he said, in a voice thick with beer and drugs and sleep. “Is that you?”

“No,” she said.

He struggled to sit up. “What are you doing? What time is it?”

“Late. Early. Depends on your perspective.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

He rubbed his eyes. “You look horrible. Are you sick?”

The whole world is sick. “Are you?” she asked.

“My back,” he said. “You know how it is. Hey, you got any cash?”

It had been a year since she’d been here; you’d think he would be more surprised to see her. Happy, maybe. But this was not the place for happiness. For a brief moment, Jude wanted to flip the bed, dump them both on the floor. She wanted to tell them about love and thirst and what both had done to her when her parents weren’t looking. She wanted to tell them about the golden boy, the one who had worshipped fairy-tale beasts, the one who was a beast himself. The things he had taken from her: will and blood and humanity.

But she wasn’t here for any of that. “Ask Mom for the cash,” she told him. “She’s still paying for my phone.”

“What? How?” He shoved at Jude’s mother. “Wake up, you bitch. You been holding out on me.”

Her mother rolled over. “Fuck off, Mike.”

“Judy just told me.”

“Fuck Judy, too.”

Jude left them to their inevitable brawl and crept into her old room, surprised to find it the same—clothes strewn all over the bed and the carpet, old lipsticks gathering dust on the dresser. She found a duffel bag and scooped a bunch of clothes inside. Then she shouldered the bag, slipped out the kitchen door. She walked to the zoo, arriving with the sun. She put the leather bag in her locker and started her morning routine. Diwata came and helped her put out food for Lolo. Lolo showed no interest in the food, but she loved the bucket it came in and put it on her head like a hat. When Diwata told her she looked ridiculous, Lolo whined and growled until Jude put the bucket on her own head.

While Jude and Diwata and the rest of the zoo staff released the animals into their outdoor habitats, an army wearing identical black T-shirts descended upon them. The T-shirts said B’S BIG B-DAY BASH, and the people wearing them zipped around the property in golf carts, delivering food and drinks to cafés and food stands. Watering trucks came from every direction, and the zookeepers were told to water the animals and “Perk these babies up!” A moving van rolled up and parked between the Wild Things Gift Shop and the Lion House. The T-shirted people set up a stage and then hauled outdoor furniture from the truck and set up chairs and couches around portable fire pits. Hundreds of thousands of tiny lights adorned both trees and cages, meticulously placed by men wearing gloves and stilts. Dozens of security guards watched over people and animals alike, their fingers pressed to the feeds surgically installed behind cauliflower ears, their eyes filled with suspicion and sociopathy. One of them grabbed Jude by the arm just as she went to water Olive and Nell.

“Hey! Where’s your ID?”

Jude looked down at the man’s hand, resisted the urge to rip it from his body, bite off the fingers one by one. Instead, she fished her peeling badge from her front pocket.

“Here,” she said, and smiled.

The man rocked on his heels, mumbled, “Sorry,” and let go. “I … I’m sorry.”

“I know,” she said.

Inside the lion habitat, Olive, the smaller and leaner of the two lionesses, rubbed against Jude’s knees. Monster girl, Olive purred. Nell stood on her hind legs, put her paws on Jude’s shoulders and licked Jude’s face. Favorite girl, rumbled Nell. What did you bring us today?

Jude tried to ignore the T-shirts and the security guards as she hosed down the lion habitat, as she petted the lions. Olive and Nell lapped up the water in big, greedy gulps.

“Good kitties,” Jude told them.

A T-shirt said, “Hey! Goth chick! I need to get some good shots to put up on our social feed. Maybe you could find your furry friends a toy or something?”

“I’ll try,” Jude said.

Right before the guests of honor were due to arrive, Jude met Diwata in the employee locker room.