Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aila didn’t see Tanya again before the zoo closed.
By the time she locked up her side of the World of Birds aviary and moved Maisie into her back tank for the night, Aila returned to the phoenix complex to find Tanya’s bag gone. Several folders of paperwork had vanished from her desk.
Rubra and Carmesi had already settled into their back aviary, snuggled together beneath the space heater, two puffs of crimson feathers bathed in rosy light. Aila slid closed the gate to the exhibit, checked all the locks, grabbed the old food bowls and carried them to the kitchen.
There, she found Tanya’s peace offering: the sink piled high with dirty dishes.
Aila set to work, paying her penance in suds and scalding water, in mirror flamingo krill mush and stubborn clumps of food pellets crusted to the bottom of the bowls. A simple apology. In the morning, Tanya would arrive to spotless dishes and a spotless kitchen. She’d thank Aila for cleaning up, forgive her for their little spat, then they’d go about their day like everything was fine.
Everything didn’t feel fine. Aila had let Tanya down. Today, and for the past few months, not giving the support her friend deserved for her volunteer program.
Once the sink was empty, floor swept, counter cleared of every scrap of leftover kale, Aila and her pruned fingers returned to her desk. She pushed her chair into a slow swivel, taking in the quiet of the room, the hum of the fridge and new electronics.
She faced her phoenix poster. The crinkled edges looked extra yellow in the drift of fluorescent light from the kitchen. Not twenty feet away, Aila’s phoenixes slumbered in their aviary, a dream finally being realized.
None of this would have been possible without a battalion of griffin show keepers pitching in to bring the building up to snuff. Without Connor helping to wrangle the linoleum flooring into place. Without Nadia rewiring their computers. Without Luciana calling out the marching orders and singing sweet words to the news cameras.
But Aila especially wouldn’t be here without Tanya, her untiring work and ceaseless emotional support.
Just that afternoon, Tanya had warned Aila not to get so caught up in her anxiety, she stopped seeing the world around her properly. Yet that was exactly what she’d done with Connor, refusing to heed how small and unsettled he made her feel. With Luciana, failing to see what positive things she could bring to the phoenix program.
Now, with Tanya, blind to how much her best friend was struggling.
It seemed unfair. The moment Aila clawed a step forward, she slipped back again. She thought about going home, hiding like she always did, waiting for a new day when Tanya would return to her chipper self, then they could pretend this never happened.
Tanya deserved better than that.
She deserved better than Aila, honestly. But if Aila was all Aila had to offer, she’d better find the best version of Aila to put forward. Made more palatable with chocolate, at least.
To the grocery store, then.
Aila locked up the building and departed the zoo. She took the eastbound train, hopped off, then swept through a supermarket like a scavenging kelpie, emerging like a coat rack loaded with overfull canvas tote bags. Then back on to the train. Into the suburbs.
Tanya lived in a quieter part of the city than Aila, shorter buildings and wider lots on twisting cul-de-sacs, crickets buzzing beneath the streetlamps. Aila—whose eyes had been perhaps too large for her spindly arms—wobbled herself and her heavy bags up the concrete walkway, past Teddy’s latest attempts at water-wise landscaping (mostly gravel and some succulents), onto the porch hung with yellow string lights. She knocked on the door.
Theodore answered it.
He stood on the threshold in flannel pajama bottoms and a faded T-shirt printed with some movie Aila half-remembered marathoning with Tanya a few years back. As Teddy appraised the visitor—her heavy breathing, the canvas bags steadily dragging her toward the ground—his brow twitched upward.
“Oh, OK,” he said mildly. “Unexpected. But we can work with this.”
“Hi, Teddy,” Aila panted. “Has Tanya told you what happened?”
“I got the highlights.”
“Good. If you’re caught up, we can get straight to—”
Before Aila could step inside, Teddy planted himself in the doorway, barring entry.
“What are you going to say?” he asked.
Aila blinked. Readjusted the bag handle on her wrist to avoid cutting off circulation. “Um… I was… gonna go for something from the heart? Whatever comes to my brain?”
Teddy’s brow rose higher.
“Shit. You’re right,” Aila groaned. “That’s a horrible idea. I’m a horrible idea. I had the whole train ride here, and I didn’t even—”
“Practice on me.”
“What?”
Teddy stood at full height, arms crossed in what could only be—comically—his Tanya impression. “Practice what you’re going to say.”
Why not? Aila sucked in a deep breath.
“Tanya, I was an idiot, and so dumb, and careless, and I didn’t think about your feelings at all, which is ridiculous, because I care a lot about your feelings, and they’re good feelings, possibly the best feelings, but then I went and ignored you, but I did do the dishes like you wanted, but that didn’t seem enough, so…”
Aila paused to breathe. Teddy’s brows stretched toward his hairline, forcing his glasses to slip down his nose.
“Can we pare that down a bit?” he suggested. “Add some punctuation, maybe?”
Definitely. Good advice. “Tanya. You magnificent tropical merhorse. Your volunteer program is amazing. And you’re amazing. And anyone who thinks otherwise is flamingo poo.”
“Closer. Can you make it less weird?”
Aila’s nose scrunched. “I don’t… I’m not…” She slumped. “I’m sorry, Tanya.”
Teddy snapped his fingers. “That’s the one. Lead with that.”
He stepped aside.
The place was homier than Aila’s apartment, more decorative pillows on the couch, more photo frames of Tanya and Teddy sharing ice cream at the San Tamculo Pier, hiking the mountains behind the city, dressed in sunhats for a vacation to a sandy beach in the Naelo Archipelago. Warm light glowed from a terrarium, a small palm dragon curled asleep like the world’s cutest pine cone. Aila tiptoed past, down the hallway.
She found Tanya in her office, the room dark, desk lit by the computer screen and a little lamp with a base shaped like a kraken tentacle. Whatever movie posters Tanya hung at the zoo were ones she didn’t mind getting flecked with food or phoenix embers. Here were her framed and signed editions, her prop replica monster masks lined up in glass cases.
“Ailes?” Tanya straightened at her desk, eyes wide, concern slipping quick into her syllables. “Is something wrong? I put my phone on silent, just to get some work done.” She flashed the screen on, searching for emergency messages. “I didn’t think—”
Aila dropped her bags to the floor and dove into a hug. The action sent them both spinning in Tanya’s chair, Aila’s elbow banging against the desk, but she held on tight.
“I’m sorry, Tanya.”
A long moment stretched. Over Tanya’s shoulder, Aila spied Teddy in the doorway, making a “ more ” gesture with his hand.
“I’m sorry I flaked on you today,” Aila said. “But more than that. I’m sorry I haven’t been supporting you enough. You were right, I’ve been so wrapped up in the phoenixes, I hardly paid attention when you talked about your volunteer program. I didn’t ask how you were doing.”
“Oh, Ailes. You came all the way here to say that?” Tanya patted her back, then urged her gently into a seat on the desk, disentangling their hug. “Thank you. There’s no hard feelings, though. Those phoenixes mean the world to you. They’re your dream.”
“Sure. But that was eight-year-old Aila’s dream. Eight-year-old Aila was also convinced cherry markers would taste good, if I tried hard enough.”
Tanya pursed her lips. “Hmm…”
“ And eight-year-old Aila didn’t know how hard running a phoenix program would be. She didn’t know she’d have an incredible friend to help her get here. I wouldn’t trade you for the world, Tanya. I wouldn’t even trade you for…” Aila’s nose scrunched. “OK, I was going to say the phoenixes, but maybe that’s not true. You’re all tied for first. But that’s a high bar!”
“Ailes…” Tanya’s voice made a strange sound, her eyes pinched at the edges. “Now that’s sweet of you to say, but you don’t have to.”
“It’s true . I wouldn’t have made it this far without you, Tanya. I want the phoenix program to succeed, sure. I really, really do want that to happen. But I want the rest of the zoo to succeed, too. I want you to succeed. I can’t pitch the volunteer program for you. But I can proofread your proposal. I can sit here and let you practice your presentation. I’ll be here all night if you need me, and to keep us going…”
Aila dug into her shopping bags, piling the items into a heap on Tanya’s desk.
“I brought everything we need. Chocolate bonbons. Potato chips. Hot puffs. Kettle corn. Those little strawberry candies you like with the chewy centers. You can do this. We can do this.” Aila faced Tanya with head tall, fists full of junk food. “Where do we start?”
For a moment, the light from the computer screen made Tanya’s eyes seem to glisten.
“Let’s start with those bonbons,” she said. “And tell me what you think of this proposal so far.”