The Keeper

CHAPTER ONE

Jolie Sowell drew one long, last drag from her cigarette before mashing it into the ashtray of her decade-old, slightly rusted, red Ford Taurus. She looked down at her fingernails and frowned. Had they turned yellow from her having smoked for years? Or had they turned yellow from the bleach she used every day cleaning water troughs and moats?

I'll quit soon, she told herself for the millionth time. My fingernails don't look as bad as others I've seen. I would polish them, but it wouldn't last more than a day or two. Besides, smoking calms my nerves. Oh well. Who am I trying to impress, anyway? The animals don't care.

Jolie worked the night shift and was glad that as of six o'clock every evening, she would not have to deal with the multitude of visitors who daily trekked through the zoo with unruly children. From the steady stream of visitors walking toward the entrance, she decided it would be a good day for the zoo. She sighed, glad she and the other members of the night crew would only have to deal with each other and the animals.

As she slowly drove through the gate, the bright yellow coreopsis and the pink and white periwinkles provided a cheerful greeting. As she waved at the parking attendant, she spotted her parking place high above the entrance to the zoo. It was 3:30 and at 96 degrees, near the peak of the afternoon's heat. Even the trees surrounding the employee's parking lot drooped. Yellowed leaves already floated to the ground. Jolie felt sorry for them. No matter how much the grounds keepers watered them, the trees and flowers stayed thirsty.

Jolie eased her car into her assigned parking space. Before turning off the engine, she leaned forward and took a deep breath of the cold air swirling from the car's air conditioner. I do believe air conditioning must be man's greatest invention, she said to herself. She recalled last year's summer when she sweltered for almost three months before saving up enough money to have it fixed. That had been a lean summer with her working extra shifts and buying no extras whatsoever. As a zookeeper she would never make a lot of money, but the perks outweighed the wages. Who else got to bottle-feed and play with tiger cubs on the job?

The blast of heat almost took her breath away as she climbed out of her still dependable Ford Taurus. It had been her parents' gift to her when she graduated from high school almost three years ago. It wasn't new then, but it was the newest thing she had ever had or would for a while, so she had taken very good care of it, except for smoking in it. Her parents hated that she had smelled up their old car with what they called her "nasty habit" but at least the car was hers, registered in her own name. It had served her well her one year of college and now hauled her baby girl to daycare and then herself to work every day with barely any problems, even though the odometer had turned over 150,000 miles several months ago now. She prayed often that it would just keep on running, especially if she happened to hear an unusual noise. She couldn't afford to have it fixed on her salary, much less with daycare taken out of it.

It was a long walk to the keepers' lounge and her reddish-blonde curly hair frizzed as it stuck to her neck, but that walk was practically the only exercise Jolie got, except for walking to and from exhibit areas feeding and cleaning, and then chasing her toddler during the day before work. Jolie never had to worry about her weight anyway. She was still the same size she had been in college, if not smaller. Being a single parent of a toddler allowed little time for eating, and she had never gained the weight she lost from The Divorce. From directly behind her she heard someone call her name.

"Hey, Jolie, hold up! What's the big hurry to start hauling poop?" It was Kaycie Harlan, one of the other night shift keepers and the only one who was around Jolie's age. The only big difference between them was that Kaycie already had three children and had never gone to college. What bothered Jolie sometimes was that Kaycie made the same salary she did. She supposed college hours didn't matter when all they did was shovel poop, and one pair of hands was as good as another, but it still rankled a bit.

"Kaycie!" Jolie scolded, giggling. "Visitors will hear you!"

"I don't care!" Kaycie was huffing and puffing when she caught up with Jolie.

"Not a good way to impress the boss," Jolie remarked, glancing around to see if Jay was anywhere in sight. Evaluation reviews were coming up soon, and she knew that Kaycie wanted to move up to Keeper III. But offending visitors would not be a good way to do that. Actually, Jolie felt she had a better chance of moving up than Kaycie did, because Kaycie seemed to have a difficult time realizing the possible impact of her words before blurting them out, which often offended people, including her boss.

"Eh, he's not anywhere around. Got any plans for your days off?"

"Just the usual."

Thank goodness today was the last day of Jolie's work week. It had been a long, hot one, and she was looking forward to a couple of days off to enjoy her little girl and get some things done around the house. At the zoo nobody got a full weekend off, and only the supervisors and curators got Friday and Saturday or Sunday and Monday off, so she had to be content with Wednesday and Thursday. At least the stores weren't crowded, and her parents got a break during the week from keeping Ellie.

"You never do anything fun, do you? Not that you can on a Wednesday or Thursday. Tim and I are going to the club Saturday night after I get off work, if you want to go," Kaycie suggested.

"You know I can't do that with Ellie home."

"I thought Ellie stayed all night with your mom and dad on Saturdays and Sundays so you could work."

She had a point. She usually didn't pick Ellie up until at least 11:00 on Sunday mornings anyway. She actually could go out on Saturday night without affecting Ellie or her parents. But it had been a long time since she had gone out. Or even wanted to, after Sean. Still, it had been almost a year. Plenty of time to get over him and get on with her life. Maybe a night off would be good for her.

"She does, but I would hate to be a third wheel on your date."

"Not to worry, girlfriend. Tim has a really sweet and good-looking friend who just went through a bad divorce and he needs a distraction. You'll be perfect!"

"Oh, great," Jolie muttered. "Two lonely old broken hearts. Sounds like fun."

"You'll like him, I promise. Trust me, you'll see." Kaycie threw a slender arm around Jolie's slim shoulders and squeezed. Kaycie was a good head taller than Jolie, but they were equally as thin.

In the keeper's lounge they stuffed their purses and lunch bags into their lockers and clocked in. At least the lounge was cool. It would give Jolie something to look forward to while she sweated through her duties. As she quickly tied her unruly tresses into a pony tail, she wondered as she did every summer why she remained in Texas when there were 49 other states she could live in. But moving would cost money she couldn't spare, and she depended too much on her parents to help with Ellie. Summers were terribly hot but easily forgotten when the other seasons were so mild and comfortable. Still, autumn seemed pretty far off right now.

Supervisor Jay Latimer and coworker Lucas Slade soon joined them. Jay was a strong man, just a little past his prime, in his mid-forties. After working his way up in the past fifteen years from Keeper I to Keeper III, and then becoming supervisor of the second shift, he knew the zoo like the back of his hand. He enjoyed working with the animals, but keeping good employees was always a challenge. As long as he had been on the second shift he had probably seen 50 employees come and go. It seemed he spent the majority of his time training workers, and when he finally got a really good one, they would move on to another position in the zoo or leave the zoo altogether. He couldn't blame them because night shifts were difficult, especially for young people who wanted social lives or had families. He hated losing good workers. They were getting harder and harder to come by.

His nose wrinkled involuntarily as he caught a whiff of the lingering cigarette smoke that had accompanied Jolie inside the building. He couldn't stand cigarettes and didn't understand the attraction they held for young people. But as long as they didn't smoke while on duty, he would have to tolerate the smell of smoke on them. After Jay hooked his radio on his belt, pocketed his zoo-issued cell phone, and greeted his workers, he gave them their assignments for the first half of the shift.

As usual, everyone paired up to drop off animal diets and run animals into their holding areas for the night. When Kaycie and Jolie worked together, Jay nearly always let them pair up while he worked with Lucas or alone. Unlike most supervisors, he did exactly the same work he expected them to do, and they respected him for it. Kaycie and Jolie headed to the big cats area, while Jay and Lucas drove off in a mule truck to run in the the hoof stock.

As Jay drove off with Lucas he heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. Great, he thought. Thunder always made the deer and other hoof stock nervous, sometimes making getting them into the barns difficult.

"Did you hear that?" Lucas was on top of things, as usual. He was a newlywed, fresh out of college, eager for a zoo career, but Jay knew that he had his sights on a leadership position in a larger, more well-known zoo. He had mentioned visiting the San Diego Zoo, the National Zoo, and the Denver Zoo, his eyes lighting up and taking on a certain wistfulness. Jay realized that Lucas would move on as soon as the opportunity presented itself. His wife was a schoolteacher, so she could find a job anywhere. Too bad, because he was a good worker, although since she was about to deliver their first child, they might want to stay a while. "Maybe if we divide up, we can get them in faster."

"Good idea," Jay agreed. He pulled the mule to a stop and they both hopped out, heading in opposite directions. I hope this is easy, he thought, raking a hand through his graying sandy hair and then mopping his brow. His knit polo-style zoo shirt was already soaked with sweat from the humidity. Rain wouldn't bother him at all, but he didn't like the prospect of getting struck by lightning, risking his life trying to get a dumb animal to go into its own shelter. He had lectured his crew about the necessity of getting animals inside during bad weather, but avoiding injury while doing so. The last thing Timber City Zoo needed was a lawsuit by a bereaved spouse or parent.

To their surprise, most of the animals hurried into their respective stalls without detouring around trees, bushes, and ponds. Jay and Lucas were closing the door on the barn, each animal in its own stall feeding happily on its dinner, when the skies opened up. Only the deer remained in the yard, scattering almost spitefully when it was time to come in. Jay muttered a mild oath under his breath. Maybe they would come on in before he got drenched. "Wait here by the gate," he ordered Lucas as he trotted back into the yard.

Across the zoo, Jolie and Kaycie sprayed down the floors of the cat house and placed the diets in the bins before opening the doors to let the cats in. It was one of Jolie's favorite areas. She loved to talk to one of the cougars, which had been hand-raised from a cub. She never went inside the cage with Zoe, but the cat would rub against the bars, allowing keepers to place a flattened palm against the bars to feel her coarse fur. Moments like this made the poop-scooping worth it.

But something was wrong with Zoe this evening. She was not interested in her food. She didn't even come over to rub her side against the bars so that Jolie and Kaycie could pet her. She lagged behind the other two cougars, then came in to her stall slowly and lay down on the concrete floor, her tail twitching. Jolie noticed her eyelids even drooped. It had to be the heat and humidity. It made everyone sluggish.

"Come here, Zoe! What's the matter, baby? Aren't you hungry?" She turned to Kaycie, who was pulling the doors to the exhibit back down with their rope and pulley. "I guess she must have grabbed someone's turkey leg again."

"I don't see how that is possible anymore." Kaycie tested the doors to make sure they were secure. "Not since they replaced the wire with glass and planted those thorny bushes in front of the exhibit."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Several years ago a visitor who had been teasing the cat with a turkey leg was surprised when Zoe snatched it from their hands deftly and lightning fast through the thinly spaced piano wire that surrounded their exhibit. It was a wonder the visitor hadn't lost his hand along with the turkey leg. "I wonder why she isn't hungry then?"

"Maybe she isn't feeling well today. Or maybe it's just too hot."

"Maybe." Jolie heard the same rumble of thunder that had alerted Jay. Just as she and Kaycie exited the cat house to head to the monkey exhibit, the clouds erupted. By the time they entered the holding area, they were soaked to the skin. The rain was so loud they could barely hear themselves speak, but the lightning bolts were deafening.

The first crashing bolt drew a scream from Jolie, who still hadn't gotten over her childhood fear of thunderstorms. She had possessed a deathly fear of being struck by lightning as long as she could remember, which made being an outdoor zookeeper scary sometimes. In spite of the earsplitting thunderbolt and torrential rain, Jolie could sense Kaycie laughing at her. Even as she shivered her face grew hot with embarrassment. This one would be hard to live down.

"You okay?" Kaycie laughed. Now it was Jolie's turn to giggle. Kaycie's fine, almost black hair plastered itself to her head; her knit uniform shirt clung to her. Her porcelain skin looked even whiter in the dripping water. "What are you laughing at?" Kaycie's expression darkened.

Jolie grabbed some paper towels from a nearby dispenser and handed some to Kaycie. She didn't want to know what the rain had done to her. Neither one of them wore makeup to work because it just slipped off in the sweat and humidity anyway, but at least their hair was usually combed and pulled back into a ponytail or hair band. Jolie's hair had a tendency to grow kinky in the humidity, but the rain would make it resemble a circus clown's. She sighed in resignation. Nothing she could do about it now.

"Okay, okay," Kaycie muttered from behind the paper towels on her face. "Well, at least we're not going out after work." She laughed as she threw the paper towels in the trash. "The monkeys don't care how we look!"

Luckily, all of the zoo's twelve squirrel monkeys had scampered indoors well before the deluge. They eagerly grabbed the chunks of fruit that Kaycie and Jolie had dumped into their feeding bowls, but one cowered in the corner, shivering and wide-eyed, visibly jumping at every thunderbolt. He ignored the food, staring at the girls as if wanting to be rescued.

Jolie pointed to him. "Look at that little guy. He's scared to death. Come on, sweetie, come and get your dinner." She beckoned from the other side of the cage bars. The tiny little monkey's face had furrowed in distress but he stopped shaking and turned her way. Just as Jolie was positive he was about to move toward her, a lightning bolt and its ensuing thunder flashed and sounded at the same time, plunging the entire area into darkness. Jolie's heart leapt into her throat as Kayce threw her arms around her so hard that Jolie almost fell. Squealing, the monkeys scurried into a corner where they huddled together in the pitch blackness.

"Good gravy!" Kaycie exclaimed with her usual eloquence. "That hit somewhere close."

Jolie and Kaycie glanced at each other, their faces only inches apart. Jolie's arms were pinned under Kaycie's, who relaxed a little, allowing Jolie to take a deep breath.

"Jay and Lucas," they said at the same time, their eyes wide.

Across the zoo, Lucas stuck an index finger inside his ear and jiggled it, hoping to clear the awful noise from his head. That last bolt of lightning had struck close. Too close. And it had knocked out the electricity, too. Luckily he had been inside the hoof stock barn when it hit. But where was Jay?