Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Finch
I craned my neck back, slumping down to rest my head on the bench and look up at the stars. The squeaks of curious marmosets sounded behind me, like they were wondering who was sitting at the lookout bench at this time of night. An unopened bottle of tequila sat beside me along with a stack of red Solo cups. I pulled my leather jacket tighter around me, the June nights still brisk.
I saw the flicker of a flashlight long before I heard Dove’s voice say, “Well, if this isn’t the most depressing sight I’ve ever seen.”
“Don’t tell Lark,” I said without lifting my head. “I can feel her eyes judging me all the way from New Zealand.”
I heard the scuffle of Dove’s boots as she wandered over and sat on the bench beside me. “I won’t.”
“What are you doing wandering the zoo at night?”
“Getting away from the circus back at the monkey house,” she muttered with a little harrumph.
Hawk had converted the old monkey house into a makeshift apartment for us years ago, and the three eldest—Hawk, me, and Lark—had moved in to get out of our overly stuffed house. There’d been a time when we’d all lived in the family home at the top of the zoo. Four of us in one room, three in another.
I lifted my head to look at her. “The twins giving you grief?”
“I was so excited when Lark moved out!” She threw up her hands in frustration. “I would get to move into the monkey house with you and Hawk and get away from those two. And then you had to go and refurbish the vet hospital attic and Hawk built his cottage?—”
“You wouldn’t want to be sharing a place with Hawk and Hannah though,” I cut in. “Those two fuck like bunnies. You’d hate that.”
“Yep. It’s the same reason I haven’t asked to move in with you,” Dove muttered. “I don’t really feel like introducing myself to a new girl every night when I get up to pee.” I frowned at her, but she ignored me. We both knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on. “I’m thinking of moving back into Mom’s house now that the twins’ bedroom is free.”
“Wow, it’s really that bad then?”
“Heron is fine, but Crane . . .” She shook her head as I laughed knowingly. “He never outgrew the ‘wrecking ball’ nickname. He’s like a thirteen-year-old living in a twenty-one-year-old’s body. For all his pedantic cleanliness with the reptiles and invertebrates, you’d think he’d have the good sense to clean up after himself.”
“Yeah, maybe just let the twins run rabid for a while,” I said. “They’ll outgrow their bachelorhood eventually.”
Dove tipped her head to the bottle and cups beside me. “So why are you sitting here like the ghost of frat boys past?”
“Ugh,” I grumbled, sweeping my short hair off my face. “I went down to the volunteer house like I do every year for the first week parties, and you know what they were doing?”
“What?”
“Sleeping!”
“How dare they?”
“Only like four of them were even up,” I said. “It’s not even midnight. They all wanted to get an early night for their shifts the next day . . . like, seriously? They’re college students for fuck’s sake!”
“We do have a lot of serious volunteers this year,” Dove said. “I actually even like the ones that have been paired up with me. They’re both studying wildlife biology and actually want to know all of my bird fun facts. It’s great!” Dove quickly reined in her enthusiasm. “But yeah, not a lot of college kids just looking for a crazy summer this year. Times are changing, I guess.”
“What happened?” I groaned, waving a hand over me. “I used to be fun! People looked up to me. I was the life of the party. Now I’m the creepy old guy who hangs out with college kids.”
“You’re not the creepy old guy.” Dove shifted to face me. “You just need to find some people your own age to go out for drinks with. Go to the Salty Dog to party, not the volunteer house.”
She was right. My years of being the cool older sister of the zoo had quickly faded away.
“If it’s any consolation,” Dove added. “Both my volunteers wanted to know if you’re single.”
“Thanks.” That used to make me proud, and now it just felt disquieting. I was too young for a midlife crisis like this!
“Frankie’s doing good,” I offered.
“The human or the bird?” Dove quipped.
“You really made our lives complicated by naming the bird after her. I’m talking about Frankie, the chick. Francesca? Benedetti? Benny, maybe?” I brainstormed new nicknames for the bird.
“I’m glad she’s doing good.” Dove nodded. We didn’t really know if the bird was a he or she. They were notoriously hard to sex and it didn’t really matter so I wasn’t going to send her bloods off for testing. She was a de facto “she” until adulthood because most zoos often defaulted to “he” and Dove and I wanted to even the score. “You want me to take over some of the night shifts for a while? You could go out on a few dates. You seem . . . burnt out.”
“I’m not burnt out. I’m just having a mellow evening,” I countered even though we both knew I was normally not so melancholy.
“Okay.” She held up her hands defensively. We spotted another flashlight moving through the trees two paths over. “Now who is that ?”
“Wren,” I said. “She’s taking Chicken Wing to say goodnight to Jackie.”
“What?”
I chuckled. “It’s sweet.”
Ever since we’d found out about the star-crossed love between our one-winged penguin, Chicken Wing, and our spider monkey, Jackie, the youngest Lachlan had been taking them to say goodnight to each other. I didn’t think the rest of the family knew, but I’d spotted Wren doing it a few times on my late nights sneaking back into the zoo.
I looked at Dove and gave her a half-hearted smile. “You want to stay in my guest bedroom tonight? I promise there will be no random girls to bump into when you get up to pee.”
“That would be really nice, thanks,” she said. She grabbed the bottle of tequila. “You could’ve left this down at the volunteer house.”
“They didn’t even want it!” I erupted, making my sister cackle with laughter. I couldn’t help but laugh as well. “What twenty-year-old doesn’t want a free bottle of tequila!”
“Okay, okay,” Dove said, ushering me up the path back to the vet hospital. “Let’s get you to bed, Grandma.”
I whirled, pointing a scolding finger at her, but that just made her laugh even harder as we wandered back through the nighttime zoo.