Parker:
Funny I know the property manager.
Someone couldn’t show up to voice his opinions.
Oh you got a warrant. Come fuck with this castle.
Glad I bought drinks. Good night everyone.
With a sigh, I turn my phone off, which I rarely do, wanting nothing more than to sink into sleep and pretend this entire nightmare didn’t happen. But I can’t shake the feeling that, no matter how much Timmy promises otherwise, we’ve somehow brought chaos to Sunset Cay, and it’s not going to let go of us anytime soon.
39
BIRD MAN
The Past
Grandfather: I never trust a person who doesn’t like animals.
It suggests they have no empathy.
The Present
“I really want to take you to feed the ducks,” Timmy grins. “It’s really fun.”
“Okay! I used to love doing it when I was little. It’s been a while.” I think back to my mother dressing me up in way too many layers, a puffy coat and a woolen hat, and taking leftover white bread down to the creek. We’d throw chunks of it into the water while the ducks quacked, and eventually I’d get a bit overwhelmed as they swarmed around me. It was a fun, innocent memory I hadn’t thoughtof in years.
But apparently it’s something Timmy hasn’t outgrown, and it’s just another cute and interesting thing about him. He grabs some bread from the convenience store and takes me to a little pond with a fountain over near the beach. As he throws out chunks of white bread, the pigeons come and land all over him. He laughs with delight as they perch on his arms and his head. I laugh, too. I’ve never seen anything like it. I even take a video because the man is literally covered in birds.
The ducks quack and honk from the pond and as they waddle up to his legs.
He’s like this weird bird man, and he laughs with joy as he becomes surrounded by—and covered in—feathered friends.
And I love that he loves animals. He seems to live for them. His joy is palpable when he points out parrots that live in the palm trees, mongooses zooming across the grass, seagulls chilling on the shoreline, koi in the ponds. It’s a beautiful quality, loving animals this way.
And I associate it with trust and empathy. Animals seem to have a sixth sense about people, and every animal I’ve seen has gravitated toward him. Dogs at the beach, these birds. I can’t wait to see what Sabre truly thinks of him when he gets home. I bet they’re going to love each other.
I watch Timmy longboard along the pathway for a bit, and then we return to the truck.
“Wait here,” he says.
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Timmy, I’m not just going to sit in the truck and wait while you go do some mystery thing. Tell me what’s happening. Please.”
He rolls his eyes. “Calm down, Margaux. I’m just going to steal someone else’s registration tags so I can put them on the truck.”
“You’re what now?”
“See? I knew you’d have that reaction.” He rolls his eyes and frowns. “That's why I didn’t want to tell you. But it’s what I’m going to do, and you can’t stop me.”
I feel sick. I sit in the truck, and I’m shaking. Is he joking? It seems like a very specific thing he’s doing, not a joke. Jesus.
His behavior is starting to make me feel more and more uneasy.
I don’t want to be around someone who does stuff like this.