Part 3
Diane’s recall escaped before she could swallow it.
Jasper looked toward her. His left paw came loose, and his muzzle slipped beneath the surface.
“Hush,” April said.
He clawed his way back onto the strip of concrete. Diane stood with the binder jammed against her coat, water soaking the cardboard edge. Valerie shifted her light so she could see his chest without shining into his eyes.
“He’s using everything he has to stay there,” she said. “Moving means giving up the ledge.”
Brett checked the ramp again. Nothing had shifted. April moved a case out of the destination room, then angled the work lamp away from the opening. She crouched low, leaving Jasper a clear view of empty floor.
He did not turn toward it.
Mabel called from the upper bay.
Jasper’s ear moved.
April rose and looked past Diane toward the crate.
“Her night room is still dry?”
“The whole upper bay.”
“Then let’s bring her back. He’d be able to see her from the ramp.”
Diane looked at the form still clipped beside Mabel’s crate. One animal loaded. One completed line. They would have to undo it.
April waited.
“We can reverse that route,” Diane said.
They checked it together, closing every boundary that didn’t belong in the movement. When they opened the crate back toward the lioness’s room, Mabel turned immediately. She took the threshold slowly, easing the bad hip across, and continued without stopping at her sleeping platform.
At the partition beside the spare room, she lowered her head and drew air through the mesh.
From the flooded passage, Jasper could see her.
For a while he seemed not to. His eyes remained wide and fixed. Mabel folded down beside the partition, arranging her forelegs unevenly beneath her chest. She made no further sound.
Jasper’s nostrils worked.
Diane leaned forward. April held one palm low between them.
Jasper turned toward the lioness. He shifted too quickly, lost his purchase, and dropped until only his eyes and ears remained above water. Diane bit the inside of her lip as he fought back onto the ledge.
Valerie spoke into the radio, arranging what they would need for medical care and further help if he could no longer move himself. Outside, a vehicle stopped on the ridge. The arriving responders stayed where April had instructed.
Diane wished they would all come in. She wished nobody would make another sound. Her hands ached for a job that would produce an immediate result: a latch to release, a rope to pull, anything.
Martin would have known the machinery. That was the thought she kept reaching for, though Martin had never seen this building come apart in a flood either.
April looked from the observation window to the place where they stood.
“We’re crowding him.”
“There’s a barrier.”
“Last spring, with the cut pad, he wouldn’t go into treatment while I watched the doorway. I had to leave his sight.”
Diane remembered the injury report. She had read it in the hospital, with her newly repaired knee elevated on pillows.
“You didn’t put that in the log.”
“I put in the wound care. This was just how I got him across.”
April turned down another lamp. Diane watched her daughter’s hand find the switch without searching.
They moved around the corner. Valerie retained a view through the narrow observation window, but the lion could no longer see the group waiting for him.
Diane stood against the wall beside April. A bead of water traveled from her hairline into her collar. She let it go. She held her breath against the urge to hum.
Steel scraped inside the passage.
The splash that followed sent Diane toward the window. April caught a fold of her coat and held it, lightly but firmly.
Through the glass, Jasper’s front legs stretched onto the ramp. His rear body was still submerged. He hauled himself forward, belly dragging over steel, then stopped with his elbows bent beneath him.
Mabel was on her feet beyond the mesh.
A hind foot found an edge. Jasper pushed, lurched into the room, and turned toward her. He fell onto his side against the dividing mesh.
“Clear!” April called. “Secure behind him!”
Brett closed off the opening with the temporary barrier they had readied. April checked it after him. Only when both had confirmed it did Diane look down and discover the binder was upside down in her hands. Water had run from the sleeves onto the toes of her boots.
Jasper lay open-mouthed on the concrete. His flanks rose too fast. Mabel brought her nose close to his face through the partition and stayed there as he moved his head toward her.
Diane took a step down the aisle.
Valerie glanced over. “I need this space.”
Diane retreated.
April joined the veterinarian at the observation point. They spoke about his breathing, about an examination once they could proceed safely, about problems that might emerge after the water exposure.
Diane went to the supply cabinet. She gathered towels and clean coveralls, then carried a portable heater into the keeper room. The responders helped Brett divert water outside and carry equipment through the cleared service route. Someone needed a shutoff. Diane showed him. Someone needed the second medical cabinet. She brought the keys.
The rain weakened enough for individual drops to be heard from the broken gutter. Diane had stopped where the aisle was dry, a towel draped over her arm. Her sleeves dripped onto it. She couldn’t remember whether she’d meant it for herself or somebody else.
April emerged from the treatment access, pulled off her gloves, and stood with her eyes closed.
Diane waited until she opened them.
“Tell me.”
“His breathing’s still a concern. Valerie will stay with him.”
“And the trip?”
April glanced back through the door.
“We’re holding both cats here…”
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