FBI Monitor

Chapter 2 - Sky Cow

The heatwave in National City continues. It's early in the afternoon, the sun high in the sky and baking everyone below. There are spots of man-made cool, each an oasis from the oppressive heat. Ruby, Sam, and Lena are enjoying one right now.

Feet making footprints of moisture that quickly fade to nothingness, Ruby pads along the pool exterior in her backyard. She grabs the towel off the back of a chair, rubbing water from her face and hands before picking up the phone on the table. "Can I use your phone?"

In a black bathing suit, wearing a white cover-up, with a broad-brimmed hat on her head, huddled under the table umbrella least a stray ray of sunlight touch her skin, Lena pulls her sunglasses down her nose. She looks away from the tablet in her hand as she meets Ruby's gaze. "What's wrong with your phone?"

"Mom won't let me take it out by the pool." The girl shrugs.

"And I'm supposed to let you use my phone by the pool?"

"Oh, come on, Aunt Lena. Nothing bad has ever happened to my phone. My mom is just overprotective. Anyway, it's not like I want to take yours swimming or something. I just want to play some games on it. I'm getting waterlogged. I need a break. Plus, if your phone leaps like twenty feet from my hand into the pool, you have a stupid expensive waterproof case, don't you?"

"Fine." Lena holds out a hand. "If this ends up in the pool, I'm throwing you in after it."

Smiling, Ruby hands over the phone to unlock. "I don't think you can pick me up anymore. I'm nearly as big as you, you know."

"That's because your mom is part giraffe. You have giraffe genes. That's why you're comfortable in this Serengeti heat."

Ruby's smile never fades as she takes back the phone and starts up an app. "Sky cows are cool."

Looking up from her tablet and sliding her glasses down her nose again, Lena says, "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"I said sky cows are cool."

"Sky cows."

Ruby nods.

"Are you calling giraffes, sky cows?"

Ruby's smile grows as she puts down the phone, gesturing with her hands to aid in her explanation. "Yeah, 'cause they're like cows. They have patchy spots like them, they eat green stuff like them, but they have these loooong necks that reach up into the sky. You know, sky cows."

After a few seconds of staring at the child, Lena pushes her sunglasses back up and waves at Ruby with the back of one hand. "Just play your game. I'm not interacting with that version of logic."

Smile growing, Ruby picks up the phone again. "That just means I'm right."

"It most certainly does not."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too."

The glass slider door open in her hand and a tray of food to be grilled in the other, Sam stands there in a white bikini, eyes wide at the bickering. "Children. Children!" When her only response is silence, she nods. "Thank you. I leave you two alone for five minutes and—"

"Does not," Lena mutters quickly before turning her back on Ruby and slouching in the chair, the tablet in front of her face.

For her part, Ruby gasps and holds a hand out toward Lena while staring at her mother.