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Next time.
Iris and Sophie start chatting about some book Iris left, and I turn my face toward the window to hide my smile. I hadn’t planned to see Iris today; I hadn’t even thought to invite her to the zoo, which I’m feeling bad about now, but I’m sort of glad that my car was dead this morning. It feels like every time I see Iris, I understand her just a little better. Little by little, I know I’m slowly chipping away at her armor.
It’s become my own personal mission at this point.
—
The rest of the drive goes smoothly, and Iris even promises to text me that photo when she finds it before she drops us off. I take it as another victory. The entrance to the zoo is bustling even on a Sunday, and it takes us a good ten minutes to track down Camila and Lucia outside of it even while texting each other constantly.
“Finally,” Camila says when she finds us. “Thought we’d lost you.”
I glance around. “It’s busy today.”
“Yeah, Lucia was acting like she was going to die if we had to wait anymore.”
The little girl who has the same midnight hair and dark brown eyes as her aunt makes a face at Camila. “I didn’t say that.”
“Uh-huh,” Camila scoffs. “Oh. Yeah. You’re Sophie, right?” Camila bends to offer her hand to Sophie, who takes it to shake gently. “This is my niece, Lucia. I promise she isn’t as mean as she looks.”
Lucia rolls her eyes. “I’m not mean.”
“Hi,” Sophie says, looking shy.
Thankfully, Lucia doesn’t seem to have a shy bone in her body, pointing to the drawstring bag Sophie has slung on her back. “Is that anEncantobackpack?”
“Yeah.” Sophie nods. “I got it at Disneyland.”
“Lucky! Me and my mom are gonna go next year. Did you see Mirabel?”
Sophie’s eyes light up. “Uh-huh! And Bruno!”
“Oh my God. Did they—”
The pair of them huddle closer as they continue to gush, and we follow them toward the ticket booth as Camila flashes me a wry smile. “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about those two.”
“Praise to the family Madrigal,” I laugh.
“Hardly. If I have to hear that damned song one more time, I’ll—”
“So, you don’t talk about Bruno?”
Camila narrows her eyes as we get in line to show our tickets, shaking her head. “Now it’s lunchanda snow cone.”
—
Lucia and Sophie are practically best friends by the time we make it to the Lost Forest, our plan of attack being to try to make one big circle so that we can catch everything before we get back to the exit.
Sophie presses her nose to the glass to get a better look at the hippos,oohing appreciatively. Lucia is busy reading the information panel.
“It says that hippos kill up to five hundred people a year,” Lucia reads, not like she’s shocked, but like she finds this fascinating.
Sophie looks back at her with disbelief. “Hippos?”
“What,” Lucia snorts. “Do they sit on them?”
“No,” Camila sighs. “Look at those tusks! They’d make a shish kebab out of you.”
“Yuck,” Sophie says. She looks down the way. “Are we close to the kangaroos? I want to see the kangaroos.”
