“If you’re my guard for the evening, where’s your rifle?” the Jaguar asked.
“There’s no guard tonight,” I said, closing the broken door as best I could. I turned the spark stone in the lamp and hung it in the center of the room. Light danced in the colored glasses, and the Jaguar purred.
“For some reason I thought I’d never see that again,” he said. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Jaguar, this is very serious.”
“Where’s your father?”
“At a party.”
“Ah, yes. I can hear music, just like my first night.” He sighed. “And your brother?”
“On a boat. Back to Georgetown.”
“Music is the one human thing I am fond of.”
“Father’s going to kill you, Jaguar.” I said. “In the morning.”
He pricked up his ears and was silent. His massive frame slumped slightly.
“Just when I was beginning to enjoy things here.”
“I hate this!” I shouted. I kicked the door of his cage and banged my fists against the bars. They didn’t budge.
“Careful, little one,” the Jaguar said. “I’ve tried that already, and it hurts.”
“Why’d you have to hurt Tim?”
“He was going to kill me. I should have let him?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“You never should have come,” I said. “Never should have spoken to me. Never given me this.”
“I didn’t come by choice.” The Jaguar leaned his head against the bars of the cage, and his thick, black fur pressed through. It was soft, and I could feel it warm on my hand. “Looks like I’ll die here anyway,” he continued. “You want your gift to die with me? Go back to being as you were?”
“I don’t know.”
“You could be daddy’s good boy with the broken mouth. You could be having a grand time at the gala.”
“Gnats to a flame,” I said bitterly.
The Jaguar laughed. “That’s good. I’m glad you can speak, if only because I like talking to you.”
“Is that true?”
“Well, I am a captive audience.” The Jaguar chuckled. “So you wouldn’t know either way.”
My head was spinning, and I sat down on the stones. The world felt very wrong in that moment. I was talking to a jaguar while Father and his guests danced in the middle of the jungle.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I said. “I don’t know what I want.”
The Jaguar’s lips curled into a smile and his eyes went wide. “You want to let me out,” he said.
I sat quietly for a moment on the stones. “You’re a man-eater,” I said halfheartedly.
“I am no such thing.”
“Even so, there’s nothing I can do.”
A light wind whistled through the shot-out door of the Ruby Palace. The lamp twirled on the hook and the colored lights spun.
“I can smell a liar,” the Jaguar hissed. “If you leave me here to die, the least you can do is tell the truth.”
I put my right hand to my back pocket. The hard metal bulge pressed against the sensitive skin on my palm and gave me shivers. It was the key to the Jaguar’s cage, taken from Father’s room that night.
It had always been with him, in his pocket or on his bedpost. But he’d been talking to me as he dressed for the Gala, and when he’d changed his work clothes for a dress suit, I’d seen that he’d left the key on his belt. The rum had made him careless.
Stealing it was easy. I told myself it was nothing to take a key. It wasn’t as though I intended to use it. But now, it was between my thumb and forefinger. The shining brass reflected the multicolored light. The Jaguar stepped into the shadowy corner of his cage. The room’s air seemed to tighten around me like a boa constrictor.
I slid the key into the lock. The tumblers must have clicked into place, but I didn’t hear them. Two different worlds were open before me.
Turn the key to the right, and the door stays locked. I am my father’s son.
Turn the key to the left, and the door opens. The Jaguar. The unknown.
The key was in the center, cutting my future in two.
Left.
Click.
CRASH!
The cage door burst open.
The hot, black mass knocked me to the ground.
Wind howled through the open door.
The Jaguar’s cage was creaking, empty.
I stood shivering, mystified, and alone.