4
Judy was sitting in the driver's seat of the truck, trying to keep calm as she drove back to the exhibit.
Not exactly an easy task with twenty of her youngest siblings yammering away inside the confined space of the truck cabin. None of them were even older than six. Moreover, it was very early in the morning, and Judy hadn't exactly slept well last night, having been… occupied.
Why did my family get those pre-show privileges? How much involvement did my family have anyway for that to happen? What's Nick going to think about this?
These thoughts were continuously running through Judy's mind over and over. It was futile to think about these things, since she didn't really have an answer to any of them. That didn't stop the thoughts from persisting in her mind like an ugly stain, however.
The same grey building appeared over the horizon again, and Judy's stomach fell.
Hold it together Judy. It'll be easier now that you're babysitting bratty, noisy kits. Keep distracted.
The truck pulled up to the parking lot entrance, and Judy could see the same fire-exit door she had taken the day before. However, this time, she noticed a new painted sign affixed to the wall next to it, marked "Entrance", and pointing to the far side of the building.
Seeing this, she decided to drive to where the sign indicated. Pulling up at the far side of the building, she saw that there was indeed a proper entrance on the other side, hidden from view.
The entrance was a large set of sliding glass doors, large enough to accommodate any species except giraffes – they would have to bend down somewhat to get through. It had no decorations whatsoever: No sign above indicating that this was an entrance, no posters or paintings – nothing.
This place really was still a work in progress.
Judy stepped out of the truck and slowly walked toward the entrance, whilst her young siblings practically tumbled out the passenger door and raced past her, chattering and yelling at each other loudly all the way.
As the double doors slid back, the kits almost collided into Stout Jumps, who had seen the truck pull up and was just walking out to greet them. Judy's siblings surrounded Stout, hopping up and down excitedly and yelling indistinctly over each other, like they were harassing the ice-cream provider at a birthday party.
Stout didn't seem to mind, however, adopting a warm smile and even leaning over to pat some of them on the head.
"Well you're back, Judy, and you've brought customers!" He laughed good naturedly, before turning his attention to the kits.
"Well don't I have some great things to show you all." He crooned. "Follow me!"
Stout turned and led the kits into the lobby area, with Judy following closely behind. Inside the lobby, there were ticket booths located next to twelve turnstiles that were big enough for a fox or a bunny to walk through. There was a significantly larger one to the far right, large enough to accommodate an elephant, just in case any mammal that large decided to visit.
On her left, was a gift shop, which also served as the exit to the exhibition to encourage visitors to impulse buy souvenirs. It didn't have a gate preventing people from walking through the wrong way yet, but Judy could see the mounting holes in the ground, where a revolving door would be attached.
"Come through here," said Stout, leading the group through the gift shop. "It'll be easier."
Just inside the gift shop were two low shelves filled with plastic figures. The aisle on the left was filled with spring loaded jaws of various predators, but predominantly red foxes. Each jaw figure was slightly larger than a bunny's paw, and had holes in the back, allowing the jaw to be snapped open and shut with fingers.
The aisle on the right were filled with predator paws, all with claws extended. Many of the paws were actual size, if the stickers on their shelves were to be believed.
At this point, her siblings, still full of childlike energy despite the long road trip, charged past Stout and into the space between the shelves and started examining the items with great interest, cautiously prodding and touching them, as if they could spring to life at any moment.
One of her younger brothers, Marcus, was a little more adventurous. Reaching out to grab a fox jaw, he started experimentally snapping its jaws open and shut with his tiny fingers, before looking around for an unsuspecting sibling to prank. His eyes quickly fell on Sarah, who had her back to him and was examining the fox paws with a mix of curiosity and apprehension.
"Hey Sarah! Foxy is going to eat you!" cried Marcus with glee, snapping with the fox jaw in his paw down at his sister's neck. Sarah squealed with surprise, before turning around and attempting to swat her mischievous brother's paw away. She quickly gave up after a few tries and grabbed a fox paw from behind, swatting at his face playfully in return.
"Marcus! Sarah! Stop that!" Judy cried, quickly breaking up her siblings and snatching away the toys and placing them back on the shelves before glaring back at the both of them.
"If you break them, I'm not buying them and you'll have to talk to Mr Jumps about why you were being naughty and decided to break his stuff." She wagged her finger at each one of them, adopting the reprimanding tone of a mother.
Stout simply laughed from behind her. "Since you little kits like 'em so much. I'll let you have those ones for free."
Marcus and Sarah's eyes both lit up at that.
"Thank you!" they chorused adorably, before running off to the rest of their siblings with their new presents.
Judy simply sighed and shook her head slightly, a smile developing on her face.
Annoying, but cute.
"Now who's up for a tour? Raise your paws!" Stout announced, and suddenly he was swamped by the kits again, all hopping up and down expectantly, everyone with both paws raised.
"All right, all right. This way everyone."
Judy was wrong. Babysitting kits didn't actually make it any easier.
That was because not only was Stout managing to do much of the work, being the tour guide; her siblings also wouldn't stop drawing attention to any display that took their fancy.
And the ones that always took their fancy was the most aggressive and scary ones. The ones that Judy also, quite inconveniently, found the most arousing.
Currently, Judy was hanging behind Stout and her siblings, gnawing on her bottom lip and clenching and unclenching her fists in an attempt to distract herself from the burning desires building up within her.
The tour was almost over anyway, and soon, she'd be able to go back home and perhaps relieve herself again.
Ahead of her, Stout decided to pipe up again once the kits had stopped ogling the giant polar bear currently leaning over at them, jaws open wide and claws raised threateningly.
"Now everyone, tomorrow is opening day, and it'll all look a lot scarier once we turn off these lights," he motioned above to the harsh white fluorescent lights on the high roof above, "and turn on the mood lighting. You know what that means? That means that everything will be extra dark and scary!"
Some of her sibling's eyes widened at that. Silence, then oooh's and aaah's and more excited chatter followed shortly.
"Now on opening night, it's going to be real dark, so make sure you follow the path lighting." Stout said, as he pointed down to the edges of the path they were standing on. Little embedded red lights dotted the edge, though they were currently turned off.
"Now come along now. One last exhibit, and then you can go home!"
Grunts and whines of disapproval emanated from her siblings. Judy wasn't fussed, obviously.
She sped up to the rest of the group, eager to leave. Just then, they happened to pass by a tundra exhibit, with a white fox, almost invisible against the snow, crouched down low and close behind what would possibly be described as the world's most oblivious group of grey bunnies.
Unlike other displays, this one was partially powered, given the bright red glow in its eyes.
Judy was drawn to it's hungry, alluring glare. While it was ostensibly looking straight at the bunnies in front of it, Judy still got a good glimpse of those beautiful eyes in between the gaps. It reminded her of the many glances Nick would give her at night sometimes when they lay in bed together, full of desire and want, and it never failed to make her shudder in delight.
She had also gone without Nick for two days, which was now a very rare occurrence these days, having become somewhat addicted to him. Perhaps that was why she found the stare so mesmerizing.
She was so absorbed in the scene before her that she didn't immediately notice Sarah piping up beside her.
"Judyeee." Sarah looked up at her older sister, with a confused expression on her face. Judy was still staring ahead, effectively hypnotized.
After waiting a short period, and not getting a response, she leapt up and grabbed on her forearm, tugging at it.
"Judyeeee!" Sarah yelled, more insistently this time, breaking her older sister out of her trance. Judy looked down to see Sarah eagerly pointing to the white fox she was just looking at a moment ago.
"Is… is that a-a-aah… a ghost?" Sarah was struggling to get the words out, as she started to tremble a little, a hint of fear creeping into her voice.
Confusion spread across Judy's face, before she allowed herself to chuckle a little.
"No Sarah. Ghosts don't exist."
"So why does it have da big scary eyes?"
"They're just lights. Nothing to be afraid of."
Stout heard the conversation and sauntered over to join in.
"Yep," Stout boasted, "every exhibit is wired up with bright, scary, eyes! Better go hide under your bed! Actually, don't. You're a brave bunny aren't you Sarah? You aren't going to run out on opening night tomorrow now are you?"
Sarah simply shook her head.
"Good girl." Stout patted her on the head before walking over to the rest of the kits.
Neither one of them noticed the look of absolute horror creeping onto Judy's face.
If that's how I reacted to one set of pretty eyes... Calm down Judy. You don't have to come back here. Cheer up! You're going home now.
The group continued to walk the remainder of the path, and out through the gift shop before exiting out back the way they came to the parking lot.
Stout stopped just outside the double doors and waved while Judy and her siblings continued on to their car.
"See you tomorrow, you lot."
Judy only plastered that fake toothy smile, and nodded briefly, but otherwise said nothing.
Turning around, she walked a few paces only to be stopped by Marcus and Sarah. Both of them were holding their toys again.
"Can you take care of these for us? They're boring now." Marcus handed out his toy to Judy. Sarah followed suit soon after.
"What? You just got them!"
"Yeah," Sarah piped up, "but mommy and daddy won't let us attack each other with them. So we want to give them to you to look after them for us."
Judy sighed. "Just dump them in the glove box. I'll take care of them. Now come on. I want to go home."
All twenty of her siblings clambered over each other to squash inside the passenger seat of the cabin while Judy hopped into the driver's seat, quickly started the engine, and drove off as quickly as she could without appearing too rude.
When she got back to the family house and pulled up into the driveway, Judy got another nasty surprise.
Stu was standing outside the front of their house, with another batch of twenty siblings.
"What!" Judy almost shrieked "You want me to take another group?"
Stu sighed. "Come on Judes, the little 'uns really wanted to see this, and we can't all go at once you know. We're too busy. Stout has only given me one day of pre-show privileges for helping out set up the gift store, so could you just do me this one favour, please?"
Stu had that look on his face again. Saying no was impossible.
Judy caved again.