Neither girl had met Betsy.
“It will be safer,” he’d explained.
Janie had more respect for Tyre than she had for Betsy. She’d figured out quickly that the leopard had been behaving exactly as a leopard should.
Aunt Betsy had no inclinations to act like an aunt, let alone a mother figure. The scars from Tyre’s paw were now light pink, and only two claw marks had left standing puckers, and now that Janie worked at BAA, she figured her scars were the mark of a true animal handler.
The marks left by Aunt Betsy weren’t visible, but were harder for Janie to get over.
“The doctor will be here momentarily,” a nurse said from the doorway to Janie’s room. “He’ll sign your release form and you can go. You feeling okay?”
“Fine. I’m fine.” Yes, Janie had a nice-size lump on the back of her head, but it didn’t bother her. Her ribs, on the other hand, hurt. Every time she breathed, her ribs ached. The flesh around her left eye was tender and swollen, but her ribs were the only real reminder that yesterday she’d pretty much plummeted down an elevator chute without waiting for the door to close or pushing the bottom-floor button.
“Good,” the nurse said. She’d barely exited before someone else showed up in the doorway.
“Miss Vincent, I’m sorry.” Max Carter stood in the door to her hospital room. He was a gangly kid who managed to always say the wrong thing and ducked his head a lot. Sometimes Janie wanted to assure him that he’d grow into his shoe size, but she imagined that family and friends had been telling him that for years, and that as a college freshman, he suspected that it should have already happened.
There were late bloomers.
Janie was one, at least by her big sister’s standards.
Janie had never held a job for more than a year, didn’t worry about social security and retirement, and was now living with her sister instead of on her own. She was saving all her money for the visiting-artist possibility in South Africa.
Katie didn’t understand.
“Come on in, Max. What are you sorry for?”
“I’m the one who caused you to fall.”
Janie swallowed. “You tangled your feet in mine and pushed my left knee?”
“No, I grabbed your book bag because I wanted to ask you a question. Someone bumped into me and I bumped into you. I think the way I pulled your book bag threw you off balance.”
“No.” Janie shook her head. “Someone pushed into my knee and I felt a hand in the small of my back.”
“I didn’t touch you. Only your book bag.”
“Then you can stop beating yourself up. It was whoever tripped me that caused me to fall.”
“I promise. That couldn’t have been me.” Relief didn’t begin to describe the expression on his face.
Janie looked at the clock. Just after ten. The doctor should be there any minute and so should Katie. She wanted to pick Max’s brain before her sister or the doctor arrived.
“Did you see anybody you recognized in the crowd around the stairs?” she asked.