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Angie slid Silly’s head over his and adjusted it so his long beak was centered at the front of his head. “I’ll take care of it,” she said into the small holes over one of hisears.
“Eddie!” sheshouted.
Through Silly’s eye mesh, Nolan could just barely make out Eddie’s turn of thehead.
“Lock up Nolan’s phone in the locker room, will you?” askedAngie.
Eddie waved his hand dismissively at them but nodded before the prince locked lips with his commonerparamour.
Angie slid her arm through Silly’s wing and they were off, Nolan’s feet settling into Silly’s slow shuffle automatically as he passed through the door Angie held open forhim.
* * *
“Ilove you,”said the little girl who clutched to one of Silly’s wingtips. She had her other hand in her mouth, the tip of her thumb twirling between her front teeth as she stared up athim.
Nolan brought Silly’s free wing up to his cheek as if in surprise and then twisted one foot and his head just slightly to convey Silly’s embarrassment. Then he reached out for ahug.
“Aw,” said Angie. “Silly loves you,too!”
“Give me a big smile, Carmen!” said the woman who was probably the little girl’s mom. Nolan twisted their hug slightly to make sure Silly’s and the girl’s faces were turned toward the woman’s phone and he closed his eyes just as the flash went off, his grim lips and his scrunched face probably resembling someone who’d just sat on forty tacks, but score one for animal mascotduty.
They, unlike the human characters, didn’t have to actually smile or keep their eyes open for thepictures.
“What do you say?” said Carmen’s mom as she took her hand inhers.
“Thank you!” said Carmen and Nolan put a wing to Silly’s beak and then “blew a kiss” at her before waving. She was already scrambling over to the crowd gathered around Tildy. He forgot who was on resort Tildy duty today, but whoever it was was sure to need to take a load off by the time brunchended.
There was another advantage Nolan had—Silly Sandgrouse was taller than Tildy Tapir and he was too tall to fit in the Tildy costume. On occasion, he had to sub for a Leah Llama, but he had his Silly mannerisms so perfected, DeShawn rarely bothered to rotate him off duty. If he slipped the man a few bags of Twizzlers when the end of the month approached, he might just get lucky and get a day or two as a Tildy Scout caretaker, but that was if Eddie hadn’t gotten there first with the king-sizedTwix.
“Let’s see who’s enjoying Tildy’s yummy waffles over here,” said Angie, slipping her arm around Silly’s wing and guiding him toward a table. He could barely see beyond a few feet in front of him—let alone anywhere near his feet—so he counted on Angie to so much asmove.
“Hi!” said Angie, as spunky as ever. Nolan wondered where she got her energy. “How are we enjoying Tildy’s magical wafflestoday?”
Nolan couldn’t make out everything the people at the table said, but he heard the scream and felt the double hug come at him from either side as two kids jumped out of their chairs to embrace him. A third was unmoved, carefully stacking several blueberries he’d picked off his waffle with his fingers on a single tine of hisfork.
“Do we want a picture with Silly?” askedAngie.
“Yeah!” shouted one of thekids.
Just then, the blueberry-fork child looked up, locking eyes with Nolan’s through Silly’s mesh-covered cartooneyeballs.
“Code Blue,” whispered Angie into hisear.
Sure enough. Work at Tildy World long enough and you learn to spotthem.
Blueberry-Fork Kid’s eyes went wide and then he screamed—earth-shattering, monster-in-my-closet-likeshrieking.
“What’s the matter?” said one of the men at the table, who tossed down his cloth napkin like it was on fire and jumped up to lift Blueberry-Kid out of his boosterseat.
The other man sighed so loud, even Nolan could hear him through those tiny airholes and all that plush. “Don’t coddle him,” he said and he stood as well, shepherding his other children around the table. “Let’s go get our picture over here,” he said. “Your brother isfrightened.”
Nolan stared at the crying boy, his dad patting his back and humming to him as Blueberry-Kid started quieting, his sobs softer and a longer pause between deep breaths. Nolan waited for Angie’s signal, a tug backward to back off or a tug forward to turn on the charm. She slipped her arm though his and moved themforward.
Nolan put Silly’s wingtip up to his cheek and flittered it just a little as if Silly had gone shy all of a sudden and just wanted to sayhello.
Blueberry-Kid stopped his sobs then, staring at Silly Sandgrouse like he was a new breed of puppy who may or may not bite him—but he was clearly leaning toward for latternow.
“See?” said his dad. “It’s Silly. You knowSilly.”
