“It’s a classic for a reason, right?”
Moving as quickly as they could, they transferred the dried oat flakes to an area where they could rearrange them. They didn’t know how much time they had before either the mess was cleaned up or the woman left the dining area and they lost their best chance at getting her attention.
“You’re doing it too close,” Catalina said.
“Too close to what?” He’d only started the first part of anH.
“You’re starting too close to the mountain of oatmeal. Go further away so it stands out more.”
With this, they agreed Catalina would be in charge of spelling the word, and his energy was better spent flinging oat flakes in her direction instead of both of them running back and forth to the pile. They were getting in a synchronized groove, each yelling encouraging words to the other, theHcoming together. He wished it was a little bigger, but they didn’t have the time, and hopefully it would be large enough to notice.
He'd just grabbed an oat flake to toss to Catalina to start on theEwhen he heard a horribly familiarscreech, one that could only come from an angry chimp. Both of them froze. Oh no, it was—
“Buddy,” his wife said, turning slowly. The ape looked more cranky than he had before, the hair sticking out in spikes around his body while he bared his teeth. The animal pounded his fists on the ground before making a rush toward Catalina, screeching the whole way.
Trey saw his life flash before his eyes, not his past life, but rather a future one without Catalina. This was enough to push him into action without any further thought. He understood her reaction with the crab because it made him want to rip the limbs from the animal in order to protect her.
Buddy was faster, reaching Catalina before he did. Yelling, she used the oat flake in her hand to put some distance between her and the animal, lodging it between them. She swung at Buddy, who grabbed the flake, yanking it out of her hands.
“Get away from my wife!” Before the ape could take things further, Trey leaped, tackling the animal to the ground. He wrapped both arms around him, rolling them away from Catalina. “Keep working!”
“But—”
“Keep going!”
The ape ripped himself from Trey’s arms, rolling away and righting himself in an amazing display of athleticism. His beady, angry gaze flicked to Catalina again, who was racing behind Trey to get more oats.
“Please be careful,” she called out.
Trey crouched forward as though he was back on his high school football field as a left guard offensive lineman, ready to snap into action and smash his body into the chimp again if necessary.
Buddy eyed him warily, making softooh-ing noises when looking at Catalina.
“Don’t even think about it, Buddy. She’s mine.”
The chimp focused on him again, his lips pulling away to reveal all his teeth, and making angry ape noises in Trey’s direction.
“You don’t scare me. Do you know what we’ve survived since we saw you yesterday? None of it, including birds and crabs and rakes, was as scary as Cat being angry at me or imagining a life without her. You’re nothing but a sideshow chimp to my King Kong.”
He didn’t know if Buddy understood these words, but if he did, he didn’t seem to care. The animal galloped on all fours toward Catalina, but Trey was there first, using all his weight to tackle the animal, both of them rolling away from the mountain of oats. A sharp pain streaked through his arm as the ape scratched his nails down his forearm. “Ah! Fuck!” he said, doing short jabs into Buddy’s torso with his free hand until the animal let go. He wrapped his own limbs around the chimp, hoping to lock him in some kind of wrestling move, but it was difficult with Buddy being short, strong, and way more flexible than Trey.
In the scuffle, Trey ended up on his back, trying to keep the ape’s dangerous mouth away from his face.Using the arm, now dripping with blood, he pressed against the chimp’s neck while he tried to wrap his legs around him. Buddy snapped at him the whole time. When the animal got away from his grasp, the chimp managed to bite down on his shoulder, causing Trey to once again scream out in pain and go back to jabbing the creature with his fist as hard as he could.
“Trey!”
“Keep going! I got this,” he said through gritted teeth. He needed to pummel Buddy, or Catalina would jump in, and then he’d have to worry about her getting hurt. Losing to the chimp wasn’t an option.
Chapter 25
Sasha
After finishing the food on her plate and drinking her coffee, Sasha checked her email, sending a quick message to Dr. Cutchin and informing him that she wanted to talk when she arrived in Belize. She then tossed a crumpled napkin onto the table and gathered her things.
An employee with a carpet sweeper came through the door, heading toward the oatmeal mess on the floor.
As she stood, Sasha slipped on her floral lab coat, pulling her hair free from the collar, and looked over to the family. The toddler continued crying, but both parents were zoned out, trying to maintain their breakfast plans of eating. The kid, while still in the mom’s lap, reached downwards, and Sasha thought maybe there was a lost toy on the floor. Sure enough, there was a small, dirty, purple elephant softie, and—
The oatmeal.
