Page 8 of Sanctuary

Indra quieted quickly and fell asleep, which allowed Simon to drift off.

The humidity rose high during the night, giving a heavy feel to the air. Simon instinctually knew a large storm was moving in, possibly a hurricane. It could be a week before the actual storm hit, but if you knew the signs, it was easy to tell. The ache in his knees stayed in the background as he went about his day, keeping an eye on the sky.

After he finished the morning feeding, Jerry came to the hut to speak with him. “There’s a delay on the two females. It won’t be this week.”

Jerry knew that Simon was well aware of what happened when the cats were purchased but Jerry still talked in code. It was like he thought Simon wore a wire or something and would turn him in. If Simon could figure out a way to report Jerry and still care for his friends, he would have done it years ago. And yet, Jerry treated him like an outsider who was always out to get him.

“When will it be?” Simon asked, forgetting to slow his words.

Jerry’s eyes narrowed like they did whenever Simon spoke faster than usual or said something Jerry thought was beyond him. It was happening more and more because Simon forgot he had to keep talking like he was stupid and not use the big words he heard on the audio books.

During his childhood, Simon didn’t like to speak. His jaws were large, and words were sometimes hard to form. It wasn’t until he began working with the cats and whispering to them that the words became easier.

“You’re sounding educated,” Jerry accused. “Don’t think you’re fooling me. If I’m in trouble, you’re in trouble. These animals can live without you. They can’t live without the money I make for them.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Jerry,” he said.

“Cut the dumb act,” Jerry snapped.

Simon shuffled from one foot to another, not knowing how to respond. He lifted his gaze to Jerry’s, shuffled his feet again, and looked back at the floor.

“You really are a dumbass, aren’t you?” Jerry finally said.

Simon acted exactly as Jerry expected and didn’t answer. Jerry was the oblivious one, and Simon had figured that out the first year he’d worked for him. Due to Simon’s size, Jerry thought he would be good with the cats. He hadn’t been wrong, but it had nothing to do with his size. It was more about his demeanor, his soft voice, and that he was the one who fed them.

“The weatherman says another tropical storm is building, and it could turn into a hurricane. Double-check the cages twice until it passes,” Jerry ordered. He never stayed on the island during storms. Simon had figured out that he was too afraid of the cats and wouldn’t take a chance that they would get loose. Simon smiled as soon as Jerry turned his back and walked out.

If Jerry did stay on the island, he would have a right to be afraid. The storm probably kept the hunters away from the island too. It all worked in Simon’s favor because the cats needed a break, and the storm would provide it.

He cleaned cages, gave Milo an antibiotic injection after examining his stitches, and checked on the lighthouse before he finished for the day. The lighthouse ensured that boats didn’t get caught on the rocks during a storm on the backside of the island.

The front or southern part of the island had a large lagoon where the boat docked. A fence enclosed the area from the dock to the buildings. A locked gate at the end of the fence blocked normals from entering until Jerry unlocked it. They never disembarked until Jerry radioed Roberto who unlocked the gate and welcomed the guests. There was a one-story building that housed the cafeteria, giftshop, and Jerry’s office which had the apartment connected behind it where he lived when he stayed overnight on the island. Another building sat to the side which held the three apartments that backed up to the cat enclosures.

If you divided the island into three sections, there was the area the normals saw, the back area that held the real cages the cats used when they weren’t staged, along with the hut that Simon lived in, and what they called the jungle. Jerry had never had a third of the island cleared, and it was overgrown and swampy. This made it more real for the cat hunters, and they paid extra for the experience of hunting in a so-called jungle.

Roberto, Simon’s friend, handled the gate and did maintenance around the island, but he left each day on a small boat and didn’t spend the night. Yolanda, his wife, cooked and generally ran the cafeteria; she left with him each evening.

Simon liked them both. They came to work on the island about ten years after him and they quickly became part of his family. Yolanda made Simon special food, just like he did for the cats. He’d pretended they were his parents in the beginning. It would have been nice if they had been, but Simon knew how lucky he was to live how he did and do a job he loved.

Jerry also hired a few young, pretty girls who waited on the normals in the gift shop and helped Yolanda in the cafeteria. They made Simon nervous because if they didn’t look fearfully at him, they giggled and laughed. He didn’t know which was worse. Thankfully, they never stayed on the island overnight.

Simon tried not to dwell on the bad things because it made him grumpy and sad, but in his heart, he knew the island was an evil place.

Chapter Seven

Bridge Home School for Girls, Misty

Misty's first week was excruciatingly painful. She was accustomed to strict discipline, but not to unjust or excessive punishments for any made-up infraction Mrs. Sanders or Mrs. Turney could think of. Of the two women, Misty preferred Mrs. Sanders, but that wasn’t saying much. Both women were sociopaths in Paige’s book, and Misty was listening more and more to Paige.

She'd spent hours praying on her knees, doing wall time, and trying to avoid strikes from Mrs. Turney’s cane. Her arms hurt from the strikes she couldn’t avoid. None of the girls were exempt from punishment, though Misty saw that some had it worse than others. She felt sorry for the girls who were as young as ten. How could their parents send them to this place? Misty would never understand.

After a week of long boring evenings that gave her too much time to think, she was assigned to dinner cleanup with Paige. She discovered this was generally the first assignment for new girls. Because of Paige’s continuous transgressions, she’d been working cleanup duty since she came here the year before. The coveted jobs were cooking, gardening, and serving. On the lower end was kitchen cleanup, laundry, and garbage collection. Every girl in the school was required to spend Saturdays cleaning the entire building from top to bottom. It made Sundays, the day of prayer and reflection, a welcome time of relaxation.

Though Misty’s infractions were small, they added up. By day three, she had several new bruises on her legs because Mrs. Turney had started aiming for them. Misty spent so much time on the wall, she decided she actually preferred the cane strikes because the pain disappeared quickly, whereas wall time left her bored out of her mind with sore shoulders and legs afterward.

The punishments were unfair and made to wear her down. This information also came courtesy of Paige. Misty stayed in awe of her new friend. She broke the rules more than anyone else and she took her punishments without a sound or a tear. What Misty loved was the look in Paige’s eyes while the punishments were taking place. Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Turney should double-check their locked doors at night. No matter how much they punished Paige, they couldn’t wear her down. Misty respected her new friend’s willfulness.

“My parents don’t want me back,” she told Misty the first night they worked together. “The instructors here know it, and they enjoy causing me pain and humiliation. I’ll be in here until I’m eighteen, or at least that’s what they think. I’m running, and this time they won’t catch me.”

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