“Do we really have to do this now?” Lilly asked, hands on her hips, tail snapping back and forth, watching the scale’s digital display blink.
“You’re overdue,” Joliet replied, clipboard in hand. While she was giving Lilly her bi-annual physical, something she insisted on because Lilly had grown so quickly, she was dressed in cotton pajamas. Night was upon them, and after the day’s excitement and long drive, she felt like turning in early. But not until she finished Lilly’s exam. It was a miracle the girl agreed to it at all. The display showed Lilly’s weight: 242.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Lilly grumbled.
“Hey,” Joliet said. “Language.”
“How would you feel if you weighed more than Dad? Look at you. You’re a waif. What do you weigh? One twenty? One thirty?”
Joliet sighed. This kind of conversation never went well with Lilly, because there was no standard for comparison. “You weigh more than us because your muscles are denser. It’s why you’re so strong. And why you can jump seventy five feet down from a tree without getting hurt.”
“I get it,” Lilly says. “I’m awesome. But I’m also...you know...”
“A cat woman,” Joliet says.
“Yeah, except that I’m more than that. You know that better than anyone. You’re the one that puts the—”
Joliet raised both hands. “I know what I do.”
“And you know that there are parts of me that aren’t human or cat. We don’t even know what else is in the mix. For all we know, I might end up like my mother. Not you. I mean—”
“I know what you mean, Lilly,” Joliet could practically read the girl’s mind at this point. Next would come the reminder that she had laid a clutch of eggs.
Lilly threw her arms out to her sides. “I laid eggs. Eggs! So you know what that means? I’m asexual.”
Joliet blinked. Okay, this is new territory.
“And even if I got to meet a guy—which I won’t, because, you know—” Lilly looked around the interior of the cabin’s large bathroom and motioned all around, signifying that she was speaking about the cabin, and probably the reserve where she spent most of her time. “—who might actually be interested in me, he’s going to be a total freak. Probably one of those Furry pervs.”
Joliet wanted to comfort the girl. To tell her she’d find someone. That she’d find love. But she wasn’t so sure herself, and she thought any attempt to encourage Lilly would just sound hollow. So she just said, “You’ll always have us.” After an awkward silence, she took out her pen light and aimed it at Lilly’s yellow eyes. The pupils constricted into thin slits. “You know the drill. Follow the light.”
Lilly’s eyes remained locked in place while Joliet moved the light back and forth. “Lilly, this only works if—”
“Where’s Dad?” Lilly asked.
“Downstairs,” Joliet said, feeling frustrated. She had dissected countless sea creatures, including a sea turtle mutilated by a rubber band; she had survived the horrors of Island 731; but she had never raised a daughter, let alone a cat-daughter who was part whoknowswhatelse. As far as she knew, she was the first mother in the history of the world to have an adopted daughter like this. She managed by reminding herself that this girl, while strange and having the capacity to be frightening, was sweet and fiercely loyal. “But I thought you didn’t want him to—”
Lilly’s eyes snapped toward Joliet, the sudden intensity of them was startling. “How much do you weigh?”
“One ten, but that’s—whoa!” Joliet suddenly found herself lifted off the bathroom floor. Before she could complain about the rough treatment, she was shoved upwards through a hatch in the ceiling and deposited on a floor of pink insulation. “Lilly, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Lilly looked confused for a moment, but then she blinked and said, “Right. You can’t hear them. So, here’s the deal. We’re surrounded. Maybe twenty men, give or take.”
“What?” Joliet shifted back toward the open hatch. “If that’s true, I need to—”
“You need to stay here. And stay safe.” Lilly slid back out of the hole, clinging to the side with one hand and about to pull the hatch closed with the other. She was hanging in midair, making it look effortless.
Joliet was indignant. She didn’t let anyone boss her around, let alone the girl who called her ‘Mom.’
“Lilly, I survived the island, I think I can handle this, too.”
Lilly hung there for a moment, looking up at Joliet. “The problem is, you weren’t my mother then. Before you, my mother was a monster. You...you’re too important now.”
With that, Lilly dropped to the floor, pulling the hatch closed as she fell. Joliet, lit in the bright white light of her penlight, sighed and then remembered her phone. She pulled it from her back pocket, switched it on and tried to make a call to Cooper. They might be able to get help, or at the very least, let the others know what was happening. But the phone beeped at her. She looked at the screen.