Page 28 of Twice
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There are years you think about for moments, and moments you think about for years. What happened next is a moment that never leaves my heart.
I entered that zoo bored, hot, and grimy. My father found a little pavilion where they served beer, and he sat down to drink one. I wandered around. The zoo was in lousy shape. Apparently, they’d endured a hurricane and never fully recovered.
I meandered past a small reptile house badly in need of paint, and a monkey village where I didn’t see any monkeys. I passed a weary-looking mother pushing two kids in a double stroller, and heard them scream at the sight of a pink flamingo. I thought back to the time I’d scaled a wall to face a lion. It seemed so pointless now. Nobody knew I’d done it but me, and nobody truly knew me at all. The one person I had shared my secret with was gone.
I was shaken from these thoughts by a sudden blast of noise. I recognized it immediately: an elephant’s trumpet. I moved in that direction until I saw its dark gray outline shifting behind some trees. When I got closer, the elephant emerged in full view. From the size of its tusks, it seemedfairly young, and from the angle of its forehead I guessed it was female. It stared at me for a few long moments, and I smiled, as if trying to be friendly, which was dumb.
Then I heard another sound. Clicking. Rapid clicking.
I turned to my right and saw, about thirty feet away, a young woman shooting a long-lensed camera. She wore a purple tank top and denim shorts. She had a second camera around her neck, and I figured she was getting some elephant photos. But when I glanced again, it seemed her camera was pointed at me.
I stepped back from the railing to make sure I was right. Sure enough, she shifted in my direction.
I took a few steps closer as she adjusted her lens. I still couldn’t see who she was. Finally, I yelled out, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“It is you, isn’t it?” she yelled back.
“Who?”
“Alfie?”
I recoiled.
“How do you know my name?”
“Come on.”
“Come on, what?”
“Lallu!”
“Lallu?” I mumbled.
She lowered the camera, and I blinked at the sight of the loveliest face I would ever encounter. Full lips. Voluminous black hair that fell over her forehead and shoulders. Cheeks that pushed all the way up into her green eyes when shesmiled, and a smile so welcoming it sent little lightning bolts into my skin. For the first time in a long time, whatever funk or depression or ennui I was suffering evaporated. It wasn’t that she was so beautiful, but rather, after all these years, still so familiar.
“Princess?”
She threw her head back and laughed.
“I haven’t heard that name since I was eight years old.”
She moved toward me then, her cameras swaying across her torso, and held out her hand like a queen.
“My actual name is Gianna,” she said. “Gianna Rule.”
“I’m Alfie,” I rasped.
“I know,” she said.
Nassau
“Finally!” LaPorta declared. “We meet the mystery woman! Now I gotta pee.”
He rose to his feet. “By the way, they’ll be here shortly.”
“Who?” Alfie asked.
