"Some peculiar characteristics," she replied.
"Like what?" he said. "What's he do?"
"She, actually."
"How can you tell? How do you know which one I'm talking about?"
"That's just it." Her smile had a triumphant edge to it. "They're parthenogenetic. That's the salient characteristic."
"And that means?"
Out of the corner of his eye Jude could see the horde approaching, the band of noisy, overly hormoned teenagers.
"It means she reproduces without fertilization of an egg. In other words, all extant members of the species are female."
Jude's mouth opened. "No males at all? How do they survive?"
"Quite well, in fact. They replicate themselves perfectly — through a primitive form of cloning. As a result, each one is exactly identical to every other one. In many ways it seems to make life easier. I'd say they have a happy little colony there."
She tugged the bottom of her jacket and leaned against the railing.
From behind came a giggling, a chorus of chuckles and snorts that grew louder as the boys and girls elbowed one another and pointed to a corner of the island. There were two whiptails, one on top of the other, clinging for dear life, locked together in a coital embrace.
Jude looked at the lizards, then at the curator.
"How do you explain that?"
She looked at the two lizards.
"And that's the behavior that's most puzzling. Every so often one female will mount another and they go at it. It's almost as if they retain a remnant memory."
"Remnant memory?"
"Of the sex act."
On the way back to the hospital, Jude couldn't resist cracking a joke to himself. Remnant memory of the sex act, he thought. Just like me.
In the hospital gift shop Tizzie picked out a package of disposable razors, a can of shaving cream, a bottle of aftershave lotion, a toothbrush and a tube of Colgate. She felt a need to buy things for Skyler. She looked through a magazine rack for something that might interest him. Esquire? Vanity Fair? Newsweek? Strange, she could have picked out magazines for Jude; she knew his taste in reading matter. But Skyler — what would he like? Would it be the same? Somehow, she thought not. She searched up and down. So many choices. Why were none of them appealing?
And where was Jude? He had been away hours. She looked at her watch — six hours, to be exact. What could he be doing? Not that she minded the time alone with Skyler. It was exhilarating to see him looking well again, back to his old self. She had helped him up for a walk up and down the corridor, and she could tell that when she touched his arm, he was responsive. He practically broke out in goose bumps. That was sweet.
The girl behind the cash register tallied up her purchases, bagged them, took her money and gave change, all in a perky manner.
"Thank you," said Tizzie.
"Thank you" came the reply, with a big smile.
Tizzie turned to leave, and at that precise moment her glance happened to fall upon the window, and she looked through to the street outside, where the sun was beating down and bouncing in silvery reflections off one or two car windows. And then her eye landed on something — or someone, rather, that caught her up short. She took a tiny gasp. Could it be? Or was it her mind playing tricks on her, a trick of the light like the reflections? For there, standing on the other side of the street and looking both ways as if to cross, was a large man with a bull neck and a streak in his hair. A definite streak of white!
She had never seen him before, but she had heard him described often enough, both by Skyler and by Jude. Could it be a coincidence? She knew, in her bones, that it was not. And she became more certain the more she looked at the man, at the impatient, arrogant way he waited, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.
She dropped the bag on the floor, heard a surprised "Hey, wait!" from behind the counter, and rushed into the corridor. She ran past the receptionist and past the ground-floor offices and up a side staircase, up past the second floor to the third, yanking open the door. She looked both ways quickly, then darted down the hall to Skyler's room and burst in just as he was drifting off to sleep.
She shook him violently.
"Get up! Quick! We've got to leave!"
He looked up startled, uncomprehending.
"I'll explain later!"
He was slow to move.
"Quick. I saw one of those guys downstairs — what do you call them, an Orderly. He's coming to look for you!"
Skyler leapt out of bed, grabbed his pants, put them on and was at the door. Shirtless, his pants stained with blood, he looked like a wild man. He would stand out a mile. That was dangerous.
The bed next to Skyler's was curtained off — a new patient had been admitted. Tizzie opened one of the lockers set into the wall. They were in luck. She grabbed a man's shirt and pair of pants and shoes and followed Skyler out into the corridor. They ducked into the staircase and he quickly changed, dropping his pants over the banister. They ran down the stairwell all the way to the basement, opening the door a crack and peering through. It was the X-ray department. Three patients were seated along the wall, waiting their turn. They looked up quizzically as they hurried by.
They walked to the front of the hospital, found another staircase and took it. On the ground floor, the door had a small rectangular window of wire and glass shoulder-high. Skyler looked through. He had been prepared for the sight, but still it shocked him — there was an Orderly, leaning against the receptionist's counter, apparently demanding information. The face turned in his direction, and instinctively Skyler withdrew, ducking to one side.
Skyler looked again. The man was walking now toward the main corridor. He was approaching them! Skyler pulled Tizzie to him, pushed her into a corner and stood before her. If the door opened, they would be behind it. He motioned to her to remain quiet, and they stayed there, frozen, as the sound of footsteps approached. The steps paused in front of the door. They could almost hear the man thinking, pondering a choice. Then finally, the footsteps resumed and grew softer. Skyler looked through the window again; he could see the back of the Orderly's head, the streak barely visible, as he moved down the corridor in the opposite direction. Only then did he realize that Tizzie had been squeezing his arm.
They opened the door and watched him walk to the end of the corridor, turn a corner and disappear. Then they stepped into the lobby. Again Skyler felt Tizzie's hand sliding through his arm, this time casually. Her arm hooked his own and he felt her moving closer, walking almost in step, like a couple out for a stroll. She steered him close to the receptionist and happened to catch her eye.
"Oh," said the woman. "There was a man here just now" — she glanced at Skyler—"asking for your brother. The one who has an identical twin, he said. I sent him up to the room."
She looked down the corridor, bustling with helpfulness.
"You can probably still catch him on this floor."
"That's all right," Skyler put in hastily. "We're not crazy about him."
"In fact," said Tizzie. "We don't get along at all."
"You could do us a big favor," added Skyler. "When he comes down, don't even mention that you saw us."
"You bet. I know what you mean. I didn't like him at all. Pushy."
Outside, the sunlight was dazzling. It bounced off street signs and windows and even the pavement, so that at first they had trouble seeing. They didn't even spot Jude driving down the street, not until he honked the horn and then shouted across the intersection.
"Let's get out of here," Tizzie commanded, jumping into the backseat while Skyler took the front.
They told Jude about the Orderly. He hit the gas. They were already five blocks away by the time they finished describing their escape from the hospital.