Part 3
“Two before today,” Ruth said. “The first images. Then arranging the sample.” She stayed beside Gus until Leah pulled out a chair and sat down, leaving the other one empty for her.
They went through the dates. Leah took out her phone and canceled the shift change while Ruth watched. It embarrassed her more than an argument would have: Sharon somewhere across town rearranging a Tuesday that Ruth had invented because she wanted one fewer person to be frightened.
“I’ll send you the instructions,” Ruth said.
“I need you to tell me when something happens. Sending the sheet afterward isn’t the same.”
Ruth opened her mouth, then looked at the grocery bag. Leah had brought the thin crackers Tom used to keep in the shop, along with milk, paper towels, and a peach whose skin had bruised against the carton. It was an ordinary visit she had prepared for. Ruth had allowed her to walk into something else.
She handed Leah the phone with the clinic messages open. Leah read them without taking the phone out of her hand. When she finished, she asked whether she could listen to the next call, and Ruth said yes.
They ate the soup at the kitchen table. Gus woke and investigated Leah’s ankle, then rested his chin against her shoe. She pulled the pen from her hair and put it beside her bowl, where Tom’s reading glasses used to collect crumbs.
“He stole my retainer once,” she said.
“Your father bought another one before I found out.”
Leah looked up. “He told me not to tell you.”
“The dentist mailed a statement.”
She laughed, unexpectedly and without much sound. Ruth reached for a cracker and found she could swallow it.
The next morning, Dr. Hsu spoke to both of them. Gus had slept, eaten, and gone outside with help; Ruth described those things carefully, including the difficulty he had turning on his bed. The veterinarian adjusted their arrangements for supporting him and confirmed the plan for monitoring his comfort. Ruth asked about a brief trip to Ash Creek if Gus wanted to get into the car.
Leah looked at her across the table. Ruth kept the call on speaker.
The visit remained conditional on how he was doing. Later that morning he rose when Ruth picked up her car keys and walked to the mudroom. They waited while he rested there, then helped him use the ramp without rushing him. Leah drove so Ruth could sit beside him in the back.
At the refuge, Elena had left the pad work inside. Ruth reached for the bundle, but Elena pointed to the bench in the staff yard.
“That can wait. Have your visit.”
Gus walked to his bed and inspected the corner Ruth had finally sewn closed. He scratched at it once with his good front foot, rearranging nothing, and settled. Leah lowered herself onto the ground beside him while Ruth sat on the bench with the unused work gloves in her lap.
Mabel was at the far side of her enclosure. An adult female named Nell stood in the neighboring space, stripping leaves with her head tilted. Elena had described the gradual introductions to Ruth before. The keepers had already supervised several short periods with the two giraffes together, and the calf was beginning to approach Nell without waiting at a gate first.
For a while Mabel paid Gus no attention.
Ruth felt disappointed and was ashamed of the feeling before she had found words for it. She had pictured Leah seeing what she had seen yesterday. The calf folded beside the dog, the air quiet around them, something she could bring home that wasn’t printed on a medicine sheet.
“She’s busy,” Leah said. She was watching Mabel work a branch loose from its holder. “Look at her.”
The calf pulled backward, surprised herself when the branch came free, and stood with the entire thing dangling from her mouth. Elena went to collect it, talking as she approached the protected handling area. Mabel resisted surrendering the branch until a fresh one appeared in the proper holder.
“Pretty sure I upholstered a chair for her last year,” Ruth said. “Same attitude about the old fabric.”
Leah glanced at her and smiled. It was brief, but Ruth stopped squeezing the work gloves.
Mabel eventually wandered to the near boundary. She stood opposite Gus, her muzzle working in the breeze, and then lowered herself onto the bedding. He was already asleep. Leah watched the calf settle, then put a hand over her own mouth and kept it there.
Ruth let her watch. She did not say, See.
The shade shifted across the yard. A keeper passed with clean buckets, and Mabel’s ears turned without her rising. Gus slept through it until a fly found his nose; he sneezed, lifted his head, and began the careful business of standing.
Ruth reached for his water bowl. He smelled it but turned toward the exit gate instead. She set the bowl down and looked at Mabel, who had only just relaxed again.
“We could give her a few more minutes.”
Leah was already picking up the leash. “He wants to go.”
“I can see that.”
The sharpness surprised both of them. Gus stood facing the gate, waiting while they discussed him. Elena came over without comment and held the gate open; Ruth took the leash from Leah and walked him out.
At the car they worked together to help him up the ramp. Once he was settled, Leah shut the door and handed Ruth the keys. She rubbed a smudge of dust from her wrist before speaking.
“I’ll help with all of it. But don’t ask me to agree he’s fine before you’ll let me help.”
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