“Is everyone watching that TV?” she asked Hobie. “Yes.”

“Are you watching it?” “I’m trying.”

“Very funny. What’s this show called?” “El Darkside del Amor.”

“The Dark Side of Love?” BJ smiled. “Is that what it means?”

“Yes. Is everyone watching this particular show?” “Pretty much everyone.”

“Every day?” “For years now.” “And you?”

“Since I moved back to Ana Lia,” Hobie said. “It’s kind of a tradition.”

“You do know it’s a Spanish soap opera? That they’re not speaking in English?”

“Of course I do!”

BJ paused but couldn’t let it go. “Hobie, do you speak Spanish?”

“No.”

BJ waited a few heartbeats before asking her next inevitable question. She wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to hear the answer, however. “Does anyone here speak Spanish?”

“Mmm, not that I can think of.”

JoJo stepped up to take BJ’s order. “What’ll it be, Ms. Warren?” she asked, followed by a bright smile.

“A healthy dose of sanity, please. Oh, what the hell, a duck’s breath burger, heavy on the garlic.”

“Good morning, Dr. Allen. Good morning, Miss Grant.” Hobie and Laura mentally groaned. Lisa Carini was a

precocious ten-year-old who yearned to be a veterinarian. She had a small menagerie at home, and whenever she brought one of her pets into the office, it turned into an all-day question-and-answer session. She was intelligent and knowledgeable but the most infuriating child around. Inside her Red Ryder wagon was Percival, her five-foot green tree python. Mostly green with a bluish-white stripe down his back, he lay there, unmoving, a large lump in his middle.

“What have we here?” Hobie turned on her doctor’s voice. “What we have here is Percival. Your memory isn’t too good, is it?”

“Lisa!” Mrs. Carini reprimanded her daughter.

Hobie took a deep breath and began again. She couldn’t find much fault with Lisa. She had been the same way as a child.

“Okay, why don’t you tell me why Percival is here?” Hobie said.

“He won’t move. I don’t understand it. I had him in the backyard yesterday and I went to clean the pool. He was wrapped around his tree when I left, but when I came back, he was like this. I read that males can become lethargic at certain times of the year.”

Laura and Hobie looked at each other and braced themselves for one of Lisa’s zoological tirades.

“However, since I’m not breeding Percival, I don’t understand it.” Lisa scratched her elbow and continued. “I understand that if a snake sits all day, he can grow obese and constipated, which is why we are here today, Doctor.”

Hobie did a cursory examination of the reptile. She poked and prodded him, tickling his belly with the tip of a blunt hook until he loosened up and removed his head from inside his coils. She easily saw the problem, but Lisa and her family had probably never seen him in this shape because they fed him nothing larger than small rats.

“The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with him that another few days won’t cure,” Hobie said.

“I don’t think he’s constipated. I track all the dates of his stool defecation for his feeding schedule,” Lisa said in a self-important manner.

Just wait until she grows up. She’s going to be fun at parties, Hobie thought. “Lisa, I think the reason Percival is acting lazy is that he’s eaten a bigger meal than usual.”

“But I haven’t given him anything different,” Lisa countered.

“I’m not sure how to say this, but are you missing any of your rabbits, the big ones?”

“No, not one. I would have noticed,” Mrs. Carini said. “Besides, they aren’t in the backyard where Percival was yesterday. They have hutches outside the gate.”

All at once, Hobie had a horrible feeling. She realized exactly what Percival had eaten. The lump was about the right size. She didn’t have the heart to tell the girl or her mother.

“It looks as if he got a hold of a small animal. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He should digest in within the next three to five days. In the meantime, keep him out of the sunlight and let him rest. He should do all the work just fine by himself. Worst-case scenario would be that we have to bring him in and soak him in warm water if he becomes constipated or that because of the larger-than-normal meal, he might suffer a rectal prolapse.”

“I understand, Doctor,” Lisa said. “We’ll follow your instruction precisely.”

“Lisa, Mrs. Carini, can I be frank?”

“Of course, Hobie Lynn,” Mrs. Carini said.

“Percival has become a bit bigger than most males of his species. I know you consider him a pet, but it may be time to think about giving him to someone who has the room for a snake his size.”

“He’s like one of the family.” Lisa looked upset.

“I know, sweetheart, but I would expect you of all people to understand that what really counts is what’s best for the animal.”

Lisa furrowed her brow and seemed to be thinking about what a real veterinarian would do.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “But how do I find someone good to give him to?”

“Tell you what. I have a friend I went to school with that works at Busch Gardens in Tampa. I bet he would be able to find a great spot for Percival. Would you like me to ask him?”

“Busch Gardens, oh, yes. That would be a perfect spot for Percival. It would be like a real jungle for him.”

“Very good. I’ll contact him on Monday.”

Mrs. Carini thanked Hobie and Laura and followed her daughter out of the office.

“If that was my kid...” Laura let her thought trail off as she shook her head.

Hobie laughed, then grew serious. “What’s worse is I think I know what Percival ate.”

“What?” Laura asked.

“Remember when Mrs. Emberly was in here looking for Petey?”

“Yeah.”

“The Carinis live right behind Mrs. Emberly.” Hobie stared at her friend, waiting for her to catch on.

“Oh,” Laura responded distractedly. “Oh!” she exclaimed as realization dawned. “Oh, man. You don’t mean…”

“Yep. I’m afraid poor Petey played his part in the circle of life.”

BJ unlocked the front door to her grandmother’s house and stepped inside the cool interior. She sat on the familiar couch that had become her resting place and bed. The remote control for the television sat in plain view on the coffee table and BJ scooped it up. She flipped through the channels, but it didn’t take her long to realize that Evelyn didn’t have cable or a satellite dish. She passed by three major networks, one of which was barely visible through the snow, a local channel, and a public television station.

“Life on the edge,” she said as she watched a woman on the local station explain how to plant a sago palm.

A sound to BJ’s right captured her attention. She looked against the wall where she had left her suitcase. She remembered leaving the top open, but now all her clothes were arranged in a pile beside it. She sat there staring at the floor. Alittle ball of fluff stood in the middle of the clothing. Arturo looked about as happy with himself as one dog could. His backside wiggled back and forth until he sat again in his nest of garments.

“You little rat bastard.” BJ glared down at him. She bent down and easily lifted Arturo with one hand and brought him up to eye level. “You and I have to have a talk, Squirt.”

Arturo’s backside continued to wiggle until he looked like a vibrating cotton ball. Suddenly, he reached out with a tiny pink tongue and licked BJ’s nose.

“Oh, gross. Dog germs!” BJ fell back on the couch, dropping Arturo into her lap. She wiped a hand across her nose only to have the dog lick the top of her free hand. “Okay, now stop that. Stop that, I said.”

The small dog then ran back and forth across the couch, leaping over BJ’s lap. Finally, he stopped and lowered his nose, his backside high in the air, as if daring BJ to come after him. When she reached for him, he launched himself from the couch and ran along the floor. He grabbed a small toy and sped back toward the couch. He jumped up, deposited the toy in BJ’s lap, then promptly rolled onto his back.

BJ couldn’t keep from laughing. She scratched his stomach until his tongue lolled from his mouth and he looked to be utterly relaxed. “If you weren’t so damn cute, you’d be in the oven right now.”

BJ lay back on the couch and realized how tired she was. She’d taken a pain pill after lunch and was beginning to feel its effects. “Well, I’m beat, how about you?” Arturo hopped onto BJ’s stomach and did a half turn before he plopped the full length of his body down as a sign of his agreement. “Must you?”

Arturo closed his coal black eyes and let out a long breath. “Oh, all right,” BJ said with a yawn. “But these are definitely not permanent sleeping arrangements.”

It was so quiet and peaceful that she immediately fell asleep.

The neighborhood was virtually silent, an atmosphere to which BJ was unaccustomed. Living in the city all her life, she had never known what it was like to sleep without the sounds of cars, trains, and people. Perhaps it was the depth of her slumber that caused her fright when the doorbell rang.

“Whoa!” The jarring sound startled BJ to the extent that she forgot all about her broken ankle. She attempted to roll off the couch, but one leg never followed. For the second time that day, she ended up face down on the floor beside the couch. She groaned in pain as she felt around for her crutches.

With some intense grunts and growls, Arturo had his teeth clamped on one of her crutches and was desperately trying to drag it closer to the prone woman.

“Thanks, Lassie,” BJ said as her fingers wrapped around the crutch. “I’m coming!” she shouted as the bell continued to ring.

She slowly crossed the living room and entered the wide hallway that led to the front door. “Yes?” she asked the old woman standing on the porch.

“Baylor Warren?”

BJ winced at the sound of her given name. “Do I have a choice?”

“Excuse me? Are you Evelyn’s granddaughter?” “Yes, ma’am. What can I do for you?”

“Ida Wedington.” The woman introduced herself in the curt manner that BJ had noticed most of the islanders used with mainlanders. “I saw that Hobie Lynn brought you back home earlier this afternoon. I wanted to give you some time to get settled before I came over and introduced myself.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re Tanti’s next-door neighbor. I remember you. Nice to see you again.”

“I see Hobie Lynn brought Arturo back home. Have you had any problems so far?”

“Nope.” BJ had a feeling that if she related all the experiences she’d had on the island thus far, the old woman would run away in fright.

“I wanted to let you know that I can continue to take care of the greenhouses and the outside chores, especially since you seem to be flying on one wing.” The old woman chuckled.

BJ found the older woman’s attitude a little patronizing. The feeling that people might have been laughing at her often set BJ off. Sometimes, as in this case, she realized that she had built the feelings up in her own mind, but that didn’t stop her from doing something foolish in response.

“No need for you to put yourself out. I can handle it.”

Ida raised one eyebrow in response. “You sure about that? It’s kind of...complicated.”

BJ chuckled. “I have a college degree. I’m sure I’ll be able to manage.”

“Well,” Ida said slowly. Her expression said that she had her doubts. “Would you like me to walk you through it the first time?”

“No, thanks, though. Tanti wrote out some pretty detailed instructions.”

“Okay, but if you find it’s too much, you just give me a shout. All right?”

“Sure thing,” BJ said, wondering why the woman was making such a big deal out of watering a few plants.

“Here you go then.” Ida pulled a massive ring of keys from her canvas book bag.

“What the hell are these?” BJ accepted the hefty set of keys. “There must be fifty of them.”

“Fifty-two, to be exact. They’re marked at the top of each key. The greenhouses, shed, and all the rest are to the watering system. You sure you don’t want me to run through all of this just one time?”

“No, no, not necessary at all.” BJ felt as though she was in over her head, but being the wise woman she was, she wasn’t about to admit that fact.

“Okay.” Ida wasn’t convinced, but Evelyn had said that if Baylor wanted to handle things, Ida should let her.