The Daughter of Doctor Moreau(15)

“Not that one, he doesn’t. He’s got eyes like a cloud. That’s not real color.”

“Did you go into the laboratory with them?” Lupe asked.

“I did. I saw everything inside. Father has a hybrid in there. But it’s not full-grown. It’s in a tank and it looks like something that should be in the womb, but not really, either. It’s odd, its skin looks all wrong.”

“In the womb?” Cachito said and scratched his ear. “It’d be tiny then.”

“No, it’s not like the homunculus people used to write about.”

“The what?”

“A drawing I saw in Father’s books. People thought you could make tiny people and grow them in a bottle.”

“How do you spell it?”

Carlota sounded it out. Her father had taught her to read, and she in turn had shared her storybooks with Lupe and Cachito. Lupe was dazzled by the illustrations, but Cachito was interested in the words and loudly sounded out each new word he learned, then used it in conversation.

“Can you hold the hybrid in your hand?” Cachito asked.

“No, it’s not like that. That’s what alchemists thought.”

“Your father is an alchemist. I’ve heard him say so.”

“No, he knows chemistry.”

“How’s that different?” Cachito asked, making the zoetrope spin.

“Stop asking silly questions,” Lupe said and she set the soldier she was holding down. “You should show it to us so we can see what you mean.”

“How could I?”

“You have the key.”

“I’m supposed to return it to his room.”

“With guests around he won’t go work in the laboratory tonight, which means he won’t need the key. I bet we could take a peek when they’ve gone to bed and he wouldn’t know.”

“He’d be cross with us if he found out,” Carlota said. “And all for what? So that you may be amused?”

“He showed the gentlemen the laboratory for their amusement,” Lupe replied.

“That’s different.”

“How’s it different? We should go tonight.”

“I’m telling you, he’d be angry.”

“If you don’t give us the keys we’ll swipe them and take a look without you and then you’ll be terribly upset we left you out of it, like when we ate all the candies Melquíades kept hidden under his bed.”

“That’s not the same!”

“It’s the same. You complain later when we leave you out.”

Carlota bit her lip. She didn’t like it when Lupe was stubborn like this. Cachito asked questions because he wanted to know, but Lupe dug into the same subject because she wished to have the last word. But no, Carlota didn’t like to be left out. She didn’t want them treating her like she was an invalid, which her father still did sometimes, fussing about her, taking her temperature, commanding that she stay in bed. She was better now. So much stronger.

“Fine,” she said. “But we’ll do it after they’ve gone to sleep and we must be quiet.”

Lupe smiled for the rest of the evening, that smile that meant she was pleased with herself, and Carlota thought she’d done wrong in agreeing, but there wasn’t more to say. If she backed down, Lupe would tease her, and Cachito would, too. He did as Lupe said. She hoped her father would check that the key was in its place, but he did not. Perhaps he was too busy talking to Mr. Lizalde.

Late at night Cachito and Lupe came knocking, and Carlota grabbed the oil lamp by the bed. She pressed a finger against her lips and they nodded. Barefoot, they rushed through the hallways until they reached the door to the antechamber. Carlota took out the key but did not place it in the lock.

“What is it?” Lupe whispered.

“My father could be inside.”

“There’s no light. Don’t make excuses. You’re a big coward.”

“Am not,” Carlota muttered furiously, turning the key, unwilling to endure a week of teasing from those two. Anyway, she wanted to see the hybrid again. Yet it wasn’t right to sneak around against her father’s instructions. Maybe in the morning she could visit the chapel and pray a rosary.

Carlota opened the door, and they walked in. In darkness, the antechamber, filled with its many books and animal specimens, did not seem like a vault replete with treasure as it had earlier to her. It was unpleasant. She clutched the oil lamp tight.

“Come on,” Lupe whispered. “We are not turning back now.”

Carlota opened the second door, the hallowed door to the lab. This time, rather than hesitating, she breezily moved in. The lamp’s flame made the shadows dance, and she turned around, triumphantly looking at Lupe and Cachito, who were still standing by the door.

“Well?” she whispered. “You wanted to see.”

They hesitated. Perhaps they had expected her to change her mind and run back to her room like a coward. Slowly they walked into the laboratory. They raised their faces and looked at all the glass on the shelves and the worktables. Finally, they tiptoed to where she stood.

“Where is it?” Lupe asked.

“Hold this,” she told Cachito and handed him the lamp.

She pulled the red curtain aside. She lacked her father’s flair but still managed to astonish them as she pointed to the box. They all stood close together.