Part 5
Diane leaned back. She had managed to ask, and April had brought her no useful answer.
For a while she resented her for it. Then April rubbed both hands over her face, and Diane saw the raw patch at her wrist where a wet cuff had chafed all day.
She pulled the binder toward them and opened it to the child with the level.
April bent over the page. “Those shoes. I thought I’d die if you didn’t buy them.”
The high-topped sneakers were orange, with absurdly broad soles.
“Your father said we should have bought two pairs and saved ourselves the step ladder.”
April gave a breath of laughter. “He put them on his hands.”
Diane remembered him coming to supper with one shoe on each hand. He had marched them through the plates as though the table were a street. April had laughed until milk came out of her nose, and Martin had solemnly offered a shoe to wipe it up.
Diane touched a lifted corner of the photograph. The plastic sleeve still held a little moisture.
Near midnight, Jasper shifted closer to the partition. Mabel raised her head, sniffed toward him, then put her chin down again. Valerie let Diane stand at the observation window long enough to see his breathing for herself.
Then she pointed toward the office.
“Two hours on the cot. April has this watch.”
Diane unlaced her boots beside the cot and set them where she wouldn’t trip over them in the dark. Through the wall, April and Valerie discussed a chart. Diane could follow most of the exchange. She pulled the old sweatshirt’s sleeve over her hand and left the chart where it was.
When she returned at dawn, April was finishing an entry. There had been no crisis in the night and no dramatic improvement. Jasper breathed more easily, but Valerie still wanted him under close observation with treatment readily available.
Diane read the log and put the pen down without adding anything.
“Go sleep,” she told April. “I’ll wake you when we need you.”
The next days were measured in small acts. Jasper stood and remained standing. He drank without lying down immediately afterward. He watched the feeding point when Diane approached.
One morning, while Mabel ate in the adjoining room, he laid a forepaw over the folded edge of his bedding.
Diane turned away from the window. She checked a supply label she had already read twice, then went back to record the behavior.
April spoke with the receiving team every day. Two of their keepers arrived with overnight bags and asked for Valerie’s care plan before asking where to put their things.
Diane learned their names. She showed one the latch that needed an extra lift before it would seat. The other carried a feed bucket in his left hand, which made her start to correct him. He completed the feeding cleanly and secured the tool afterward. Diane closed her mouth.
Mabel avoided the keeper in the bright raincoat. He tried once more, noticed her withdraw, and came to his next watch in a dark jacket. He offered no explanation. Diane made sure she had his name spelled correctly on the schedule.
When Valerie allowed supervised contact in the undamaged room, Jasper went directly to Mabel. He pushed his forehead under her chin so vigorously that he nearly overbalanced. She braced for him and licked the fur above his ear.
Then he leaned against the bad hip.
Mabel moved away. He followed, but this time he left her more room.
Diane had spent days thinking about the first time they would be together again. Within a minute, Mabel had claimed her resting place and Jasper had gone to the water. Diane stood at the mesh until April reminded her that the tap was still running into a bucket.
The damaged passage remained sealed. Following the assessment, Brett returned with the transport crew to arrange an exit through the intact high-side access. Neither cat would go near the washed-out apron.
He showed Diane the proposed route. She checked the gates and asked about the crate connections.
She did not ask what replacing the passage would cost.
There were shelves to empty. Medical histories and legal documents went into transfer boxes. April checked the digital copies against the paper files. Diane moved the construction photographs into a new binder and labeled its spine.
Martin’s gloves lay in the desk drawer, bent into the shape of his hands. For three days she opened the drawer, looked at them, and shut it again.
On the fourth day of sorting, April found her writing on a flattened donation envelope.
“Are those more inventory numbers?”
Diane put her hand over the page, then lifted it.
“No. Things that won’t stay out of my head.”
April read over her shoulder.
Mabel would interrupt breakfast if somebody scraped a shovel across nearby concrete. She favored the left edge of a platform when arranging her hip. Jasper might leave a new enrichment object alone until the keeper stopped watching it. In a thunderstorm, both cats chose one shelter even if they had several available.
“I don’t want to hand them a set of demands,” Diane said. “They know how to do their jobs.”
April pulled out a chair.
“Let me get paper without a return address on it.”
She brought a clean sheet and copied the notes. Then she added that Jasper disliked the rattle of the metal cart crossing the seam outside his room. Mabel often approached an unfamiliar keeper only after the person had given up coaxing her.
Diane hadn’t known either thing.
“What did you do about the cart?”
“Stopped bringing it that far. We parked it by the cabinet and carried the rest.”
Diane nodded. April wrote it down.
By the time they finished, they had filled both sides.
Eleven days after the flood, Valerie approved the journey on condition that her monitoring and transport requirements were met. The receiving rooms were ready. The high route had been inspected, and the forecast offered two dry days.
Diane studied the weather report long enough to find the cloud symbols beyond those two days. She put the phone away.
Loading began early. At the high-side access, Brett waited by the checked connections while April supervised Jasper’s move. The lion paused several times along the unfamiliar route. At the crate he sniffed the floor, looked back, and finally stepped inside.
April lowered the door. Jasper struck the floor with one paw and stood listening.
From her room, Mabel answered the noise. She came along the new route slowly. At the crate entrance she stretched her head forward, withdrew it, and backed away.
Diane had expected that. She had prepared herself for it during every quiet minute of the preceding night.
They paused. Brett moved farther back. A member of the crew put down a tool rather than carry it past the barrier. Diane stood in the protected calling position with the food offered where Mabel could safely take it.
The lioness advanced one step. Her ears turned toward her old room.
Diane looked at Valerie.
“We may be asking too much.”
“We can give her a quiet interval,” the veterinarian said. “Then assess again.”
Diane loosened her grip on the food container. There was a way to stop without arguing. An unsettled animal, an unfamiliar route, another morning on familiar ground. Tomorrow’s feed form would take only a moment to prepare.
April approached, stopping beside her rather than between her and the cat.
“Come behind the screen with me.”
Diane kept her eyes on Mabel. “She knows this position. She knows what I’m asking.”
April said nothing. She glanced toward the screen, leaving room beside her.
The team had discussed the process. There was time to wait without anyone at the calling point. Diane could see the clean, unobstructed space beyond the crate threshold, though Mabel kept looking toward her.
Jasper made a low sound from the other crate.
Mabel turned one ear toward it.
Diane covered the unused food. She set the container down and stepped away from the rail.
April walked with her behind the viewing screen.
They stood without speaking. Mabel sniffed the concrete, put a forefoot across the threshold, and stopped. Her head disappeared inside. Claws scratched once as she shifted her balance.
The second front foot followed. Then she brought the stiff hip over the sill and drew in her tail.
Diane counted behind her teeth.
“Clear,” April said.
The door descended. Mabel turned once and settled at the end nearest Jasper.
From behind the screen, Diane could see neither face. She would have needed only a few steps to change that. She remained where she was while the crew completed the checks.
April touched her elbow. Neither of them moved until Brett said he was ready.
Diane carried the supply box to the transport vehicle. She handed over the medical records and the transfer papers. The two-sided page went on top, where it could be found without opening every folder.
Last came Jasper’s washed red ball, packed among the familiar objects the receiving keepers had approved.
April stowed it in the equipment compartment.
“Ride with me,” she said. “We’ll follow Brett.”
Diane had intended to stay behind. The office needed locking. The freezer needed emptying. She could have spent the rest of the day walking from one necessary chore to another.
“I haven’t brought anything.”
“Your overnight bag’s under the cot.”
Diane looked at the office window. She had rolled a clean shirt around a pair of socks the day before and pushed the bag out of sight.
She turned toward the building.
“I’ll get it…”
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