Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
One week. Two weeks. Three weeks.
After the inspection, Aila kept herself busy with every menial task on her backlog, plus several new ones daydreamed while folding towels on the patio. She had a shiny new phoenix complex. Why not clean everything else in her exhibits?
A power wash of the kelpie pool left Maisie swimming somersaults, seaweed-strewn mane and tail billowing around her like a stormy ocean. From the commissary, Aila bartered an entire crate of watermelons. Archie nearly fell off his perch when she dragged the feast into the World of Birds aviary, and patrons spammed Griffingram for days with photos of periwinkle prairie geese munching melon flesh, the screaming mynas shouting over scraps, the pixie wrens levitating leftovers with their magical feather dust.
Luciana stayed at the griffin show where she belonged. Everything back to normal.
Also back to normal (unfortunately): Aila’s agony, waiting for a call or message with the inspection results.
“Do you think they lost my email?” Aila worried aloud as she and Tanya donned their rubber wading boots. “Or maybe they sent the results to the wrong email address? Macbhairan is a hard name to spell. People are always forgetting the a . Or putting the h in the wrong spot.”
Tanya cut her a long-suffering look. “You think IMWS forgot where the zoo is, too?”
Aila mumbled something about her making a good point, then finished with her boots.
The morning was chill, overcast. Tanya and Aila were due for their monthly scrubbing of the mirror flamingo pond.
Tanya’s exhibits made up the east side of the zoo’s aviary hub. At the edge of the Ozokian section, surrounded by marshy walkways and high-kneed cypress trees dripping in gray moss, was the Ozokian kingfisher, smallest of the aviary domes. The exhibit contained a pool where the kingfisher could hunt for tiny fish, stunning them with his electrical pulses.
Next door was the larger mirror flamingo aviary. The interior mimicked their native Pennja savannah, south-east across the mountains from Movas, a subtropical savannah of low scrub and spiky acacia trees. The central pool made up most of the exhibit, shallow and warm and mildly salted, for optimal flamingo foot health. The edges were caked with smelly shrimp residue and smellier flamingo shit.
Tanya opened the valve to drain the pool, then they set to work cleaning.
As Aila crouched, scrubbing rocks along the pond periphery, the disgruntled occupants strutted past on spindly legs, silver feathers clinking like shards of glass. Her reflection stared back in the polished plumes, complete with frazzled hair and mud splotching her cheeks. Occasionally, a squabble between two birds made them flash out of sight, feathers angled to refract the surrounding light (but leaving the unfeathered beak and legs still comically visible). They reappeared, squawking and pecking at one another.
“We need to trim those palms earlier in the season.” Tanya dredged an armful of soaked fronds out of the pond drain. “Keep blocking up the circulation.”
Aila sat back on her heels. “I’m not climbing up there again. You know how I feel about heights.” She shuddered at the thought of the ground any farther than a foot or two below her.
Tanya tossed a frond at her, splattering Aila with more mud. “You’re making me do all the hard work?”
Aila grabbed a hose and held it up, threatening. “Don’t make me do it, Tanya. I’d hate to see our friendship end like this.”
Tanya brandished her own hose. “You always knew it would come to this, Ailes.”
The flock of mirror flamingos honked in annoyance as the two keepers squared off, hands ready to draw on their respective hose nozzles, their dueling ring an empty pond slicked with algae and uneaten shrimp meal.
Before shots could fire, Aila’s phone rang.
“Fuck!” She dug into her pocket, cringing at muddy fingers, then sprayed her arms clean and wiped a hand on the driest patch of shirt she could find. “What are you laughing at?”
Across the pond, Tanya clutched her stomach, shaking with giggles. Aila pulled out her phone and scowled at the unfamiliar number. Who would call her at work? Did she forget another therapy appointment? No, she’d just spoken to Andrea last week.
“Hello?”
Beside her, a mirror flamingo honked in response. She shooed it away.
“Hello, Aila Macbhairan?” came a crisp, professional voice. “This is Maria Rivera, at IMWS. Do you have a moment?”
Aila’s world came to a standstill. Tanya sobered at the sight. Even the mirror flamingos fell quiet, their heads snapping from side to side.
She’d had weeks to prepare for this. Weeks to analyze every moment of the inspection and write mental essays of how she could have done better. Spoken more clearly. Held herself with greater confidence. She wasn’t ready for another failure.
“Yes.” Aila’s throat constricted. “Of course, Ms. Rivera. How are you?”
“Excellent, thank you! I apologize for the impromptu call, but we’ve finished reviewing Director Garumano’s report. He was impressed by the status of your facility, as well as your familiarity with the Silimalo phoenix breeding system. I’m excited to let you know, we’d like to move forward with San Tamculo as our leading recommendation for the phoenix transfer.”
Aila’s mind went blank.
Words? What were those?
Functioning legs? Barely.
This couldn’t be real. Aila would write it off as a dream, if not for the pinch of an ornery flamingo at her arm. She flinched, biting back a curse before it spewed into the phone.
Tanya leaned toward her. Aila? she mouthed.
“Miss Macbhairan?” came a concerned voice in her ear.
“I… Yes… Yes! ” Aila’s voice shook. “I’m still here. Sorry. Are you… sure ?”
Rivera chuckled. “Of course I’m sure. Why else would I call?”
“Sure, sure, dumb question.” Aila winced at her informality. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Rivera, it’s just… This is wonderful news!”
Unfathomable news. Aila spun it every way, looking for the caveat. The disaster.
“I thought you’d be eager to hear it. I’ve just spoken with Director Hawthorn about starting the process. We’ll need to schedule a few more visits over the coming months, opportunities to update some protocols and prepare for…”
The logistics hummed through Aila’s brain, stowed away for later, not yet sinking in. Rivera finished with hearty congratulations. A promise to talk again soon. Aila thanked her with a numb tongue, then ended the call.
Tanya had snuck close enough to press her ear to the phone beside Aila’s. They shared wide eyes.
“Aila,” Tanya said, hushed.
“Tanya,” Aila returned.
“ Aila! ”
“ Tanya! ”
Aila squealed and leapt into Tanya’s arms, who lifted her off the ground and spun them in a laughing, mud-drenched circle. The mirror flamingos resumed their disgruntled chorus. Aila didn’t care. She couldn’t stop smiling. Even when Tanya released her, she bounced in her muddy work boots.
This was real.
It was happening . A second phoenix.
Aila squealed again, just for good measure.