Unicorn at the Glue Factory

“How is she doing?”

“Fine, I guess.”

Eva’s curls glinted in the sunlight falling unto her desk.  She folded her hands, weaving together thin pale fingers, each tipped with flawless strokes of ruby red polish. “Why only a guess, Paxton?” She cleared her throat, “I mean, you’re her father; why don’t you ask her how she’s feeling?” She looked him over; beneath the thick ridge of his glasses, Paxton’s eyes were lined and puffy with the bruised purple of sleeplessness. His hair was becoming more salt than pepper. Yet, even in his age, he pulsed with the forbidding venerability. “Kacie just doesn’t…” His shoulders lifted as though it hurt to breathe, “She doesn’t laugh anymore, not for over a year now. Ever since Angie…”

“Let’s not talk about her, okay?” Paxton looked away, ashamed that he could still be so sentimental. It was Angie's choice to leave. There wasn't anything he could have done. The things he's had to tell himself to get any sleep at night...

Eva stood and walked around her desk, heels clicking below a crisp, white lab coat. Laying her hand on his arm, he looked up into her eyes: one brown, one green. She was like magic to him. “Everything is going to be all right. Kacie lost her mother at a younger age than most. She just needs to get comfortable. How about letting me spend some time, alone, with her today? I’ll give her a tour…”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Eva.”

“Don’t worry” Eve whispered, bending low to Paxton’s ear, “I will be discrete.”

Paxton pushed up from his chair, an unsteady hand reached out to the desk, knocking over some pens and a brass nameplate which fell to the floor with a thunk. Eva grasped his arms, “Are you okay?” “Sorry about that”, he wasn’t looking at her. Eva tilted his stubbled chin upward, and kissed him. Pulling back, she said, “Just give me today.”

“If Kacie gives you any problems, call me. I’ll probably be in my office.”

As the door clicked behind him, Eva picked up the nameplate. In the window light, her eyes, almonds laced with waves of mascara, reflected back from the polished golden angles of her name: Eva Darian, Chief Adhesive Scientist.  

~ * ~

Kacie sat in an uncomfortable chair in the florescent lit hallway of her father’s workplace, face hidden behind the covers of a book. The peeling sticker on her sweater read “Kacie Phillips” in cutesy black ink above bright blue “Hello! My name is”. Thoughtful little hearts dotting each of the three “I”s. To the dismay of the secretary however, green crayon, similar to the one tucked behind Kacie’s left ear, scrawled out “Bitch” in the remaining white space.

Eva clicked across the linoleum, nodding politely to the now relived secretary. Kacie didn’t look up. “Hi Kacie. Welcome to United Adhesive”, Eva smiled, Kacie ignored her. “Whatcha reading?” Kacie turned the page, Eva cleared her throat. “I want to take you on a tour today, would you like that?” Without reaching the end, the young girl turned the page again. Not one to be dismissed, especially by a middle schooler, Eva leaned close to the back of Kacie’s book. “Listen, you should give me a chance. It might even be fun. It’s important that you’re open to new things. It’s best for you, and your father.”

Staring at the book now, Kacie’s fingers began to crinkle the edge of the pages, from behind the hard covers she growled, “You might be my dad’s girlfriend, but don’t ever expect to be my mom”. Eva’s lips pursed, her back straightened. Snatching the book from Kacie’s hands, she shut it with an echoing slap. “I want you to come with me. I have something to show you.” Kacie’s face went red; her arms folded close to her chest with a stubbornness that reminded Eva of Paxton. Eva’s voice softened, lowered so even the secretary couldn’t hear, “Kacie, can you keep a secret?”

~ * ~

Next to Eva’s tapping heels, Kacie shuffled, stepping on the white tails of her baggy jeans. As they walked, Eva would point out an old picture along the corridor on the left, or some kind of bottle on a pedestal under glass to the right, but they didn’t stop. “Adhesive’s are everywhere, and have been since the times of the ancient Sumerians.” Without turning to face her, Eva asked, “Did you know that even hairspray is an adhesive?” and without waiting for a reply, Eva began to list all kinds of sticky substances, “Tape, stickers, post-it notes, labels, stamps!” She smiled, her voice becoming more breathless and excited as they reached a stairwell, “Hot glue, super glue, glue sticks, glitter glue. Glue for every need, made of a variety of compounds. You’ve got beeswax glue, plant cellulous glue, animal hide glue….”

“Animal hide glue?” Kacie looked like she might be a little ill.

“Yes.” Eva’s smile seemed to whiten as it widened, “In China they have Ejiao – donkey hide glue. It’s used in medicine to stop bleeding. And then there’s Isinglass, a fish bladder glue, used to…”

“Stop! Please, you’re making me sick.” Kacie grabbed her stomach dramatically.

The spark faded from Eva’s eyes, “Well, since the 20^th century, most adhesives are synthetic.” Kacie relaxed, but Eva’s body seemed to absorb her repulsion. “We’re here”.

            They stood before a heavy unmarked door. Even from the hallway, Kacie could make out the faint sent of barn and…was it strawberries? Anything that didn’t smell like glue was instantly amplified one hundred fold. Eva swiped her ID badge and the door unlocked with a tiny beep. Walking into the dim room, hay crinkled and slipped beneath their feet. One half of the room was set up as a laboratory, while in the other –

            “What the hell is that?” Kacie said, just a little too loud.

            “Hush, it’s the secret I wanted to show you.” Eva took Kacie’s hand, who distractedly let her. Leading the wide eyed girl to the pen, Eva whispered, “Isn’t it amazing?” Kacie just stared. Eva gave her hand a little squeeze, “Hey, watch your language, okay?” Kacie tugged back and put both hands on the fence before her, “It’s really….ugly.” The animal was shaped like a donkey, a dirty matte gray with bristles instead of hair. The teeth were big and bucked, with drool globbing from its lips. Its cloven hooves were covered in muck and looked hardly able to hold it up on its knobby legs. In fact, the whole animal looked like just bones and skin, with a deformed, white lump on the center of its head.

            “So what, exactly, is so special about this thing?”

            “Don’t you want to pet it?”

            Kacie scrunched up her nose, “Not really. What is it?”

            “In China, they call it a Quilin. In Japan, a Kirin.”

            “Isn’t that where you’re from?”

            “Close enough.” Eva bent down, the edge of her pressed lab coat just inches off the floor. “Do you know what this is, Kacie?” She shook her head. “It’s a unicorn”.

            Silence crept between them. Kacie stared deep into Eva’s face, as if she could find truth there. A sideways glance at the beast, and back at Eva, Kacie’s eyes narrowed. “You’re so full of it”, she said, pushing her away. Eva caught her balance on the fence and pulled herself up. “It’s the truth.”

            “Where’s its horn? White hair? Lazer eyes? Shouldn’t there be rainbows coming out of its ass or something?”

            “Kacie!” Eva scolded.

 “Yeah, where’s the ma-gic Ev-a?! I’m 12 years old! Just how stupid do you think I am?”

“Kacie, I am telling you the truth!”

“Just wait until my dad hears this one”, enlightenment glowed from Kacie’s face, “he’ll never stay with you now, not after he knows you’re a psycho.” With a flying crunch of hay and a slamming door, Kacie was gone to find her father’s office, leaving Eva alone in the dim of her defeat with an ugly, drooling unicorn.

~  * ~

Paxton was not happy. One hand on his daughter’s shoulder, his eyes were flooded with disappointment and Eva began to drown within them. “What have you done?”

“I didn’t realize she wouldn’t believe me.”

“That’s not the point Eva. This was not meant for her.” Kacie started to squirm under his grip. “Dad, let’s get out of here. She’s obviously insane.”

Paxton looked down on his daughter. So much like her mother, Angie, yet full of more anger than he’d seen in most men. Eva was still beautiful, even in the shadows. She seemed to be constantly risking things for him – her job, her reputation, her sanity. He owed her something for that. “She is not insane, Kacie. Eva is telling you the truth.” Kacie’s mouth gaped as though she’d been slapped in the face, “You’re taking her side?”

“No, not her side; our side. It really is a unicorn. And it might just save us all.” Paxton sighed; rather than having a heavy weight lift from his shoulders, more seemed to pile on.

“What do you mean?”

“This—unicorn—is very sick. It’s dying. We are going to see if any of its abilities can be retained in…another form.”

“Abilities? So it is magic?”

“No, not quite.” Paxton kneeled down in the hay, as Eva rolled over a chair. “Thank you dear”. Eva put her hand on his shoulder, and spoke “Maybe it would be better if you knew how it got here, first. I brought it home with me, from India….”

“I thought you were from China?”

“Close enough.”

“Not really, there’s kinda a big difference…”

Eva’s voice was exasperated, “Well I'm not there anymore. I had to run away, and there's nothing for me to go back to. I'm here now." Upset but undeterred, she snapped, "Do you want to know why there’s a unicorn in a glue factory, or not?”  In Kacie’s silence, she continued.

“In India, as a small girl, I was a bookworm too. I loved fantasy and myths, and my father encouraged me to dream. My mother, however, was not so appeasing. She felt I would never be married or successful if I kept shutting myself away with my stories. When my father died, she enrolled me in a private school, and I never went home again.”

Feigning boredom, Kacie yawned widely, “And what does that have to do with Unicorns?”

“My final term, I snuck out with friends during a particularly starry night. There was a clearing, almost like a mirage. That’s where we saw them for the first time.” Eva shifted, her face suddenly losing any trace of its usual joy. “We all walked together, toward the beasts. They had long horns, dusk-blue hair. We touched them and they seemed to hum, like a cat purring. For weeks afterward, my friends and I would sneak out of our beds and walk with them in the moonlight. Once, I stumbled and cut open my knee. One of the animals walked toward me, and licked the wound. I was healed. We told no one. Or at least, I told no one.” Eva’s voice lowered, “Then, one night, as we were leaving the grounds – I was spotted. The others ran ahead, while I was disciplined and sent back to bed. I waited for over an hour to leave again. When I finally got to the clearing, everyone was gone.”

“Gone?”

“They were never seen again.”

Kacie’s eyes were wide and horrified. Paxton got out of his chair, his voice wary, “We’re not telling you this to scare you dear. We need you to know the truth. Are you okay?”

Kacie swallowed, his voice shaky, “What about the unicorns?”

“I do not know. Police began to ask questions. No one would believe me, I knew that. Having no family to hold me back, I escaped India, and tried to forget.”

“Then where did you get the unicorn?” Kacie looked over at the pen, scrunching up her nose, “You are pretty sure it’s a unicorn, aren’t you?”

“My mother died last year, the same time as Angie - your mother." Eva's face was clearly pained. "I went back to India, but I did not go to her funeral. I went back to the clearing. This is what I found”, her hand waved toward the beast, “It was tiny, small enough to sneak through customs. I wanted answers; I wanted to know that…it wasn’t my fault.”

“Okay. So why is it so ugly?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s deformed, abandoned by its herd. Maybe it was all the testing. But we have reason, good reason, to believe there is magic within it yet.”

Kacie stood straighter, her face mimicking bravery, “and I can help.”

Paxton shook his head, “No.”

“What do you mean, No?” Her hands and lip trembled.

“This is not a job for young girls, Kacie.” Eva soothed.

Pulling away, disgusted, “What’s going to happen to it?” Vats of boiling water; lime, an underground laboratory in a glue factory—recognition rose like the morning sun on Kacie’s face. “Why is it here?”

“We’ve been studying it, Kacie. We’ve analyzed its hair, its horn, hooves, tail. No magical properties, no different from a cow or a donkey.”

Paxton seethed at Eva, “This is not the time, enough stories today, Eva”

“She’s old enough to know, Paxton!”

“She is not your daughter!” Paxton heaved, his age pushing him back into the chair.

Eva’s face was stony, lips pursed. “Maybe not, but this could affect her future, Paxton. Her’s children’s children’s future. If we are successful, we could save the world.”

Kacie stepped close to her father, and hugged him, “Dad, I want to know.”

Her father nodded, “It’s just like any other animal, except that it hasn’t got any blood. It’s all bone, and skin, no real body. That’s why it’s here, now, for a final test.” Paxton held her at arm’s length, frantically searching her eyes with his, “It’s dying anyway, Kacie, can’t you see? It’s a necessary evil. Maybe the adhesive it makes will heal broken bones, or maybe even….hearts, memories. Something metaphysical. A whole new element, capable of sticking two liquids to each other….Do you understand?”

“You’re going to turn the unicorn into glue?”

“Yes.”

Kacie wanted to cry, but couldn’t. Ugly as it was, she wanted the beast to be real. To be real, it needed to stay alive. Perhaps it had just been a disappointment to its mother, like she had been. Maybe its mother had tucked it in for bed, and then gone off into no-man’s-land to kill itself, like her mother had. Abandoned, unwanted, maybe she should be made into glue too.

“There’s no way I can stop it, is there?”

“No, Kacie, this is how it must be.”

“Can I at least pet it first?”

Tears welled in Eva’s eyes, “Sure.” It was just as bristly and smelly as it looked, and she got drool on her hand even when she touched its back – but did that really mean it had to die?

Paxton took Kacie back upstairs while Eva completed the process of turning the unicorn into glue. In his office, Kacie didn’t put her feet up on the desk as usual, or pull down any of his books. She sat silently, obediently, quiet tears dripping from her nose.

“It’ll be okay.” Paxton said. “This could really change everything.”

“What if it isn’t a unicorn, Dad. What if it’s just an animal?”

Paxton removed his glasses, setting them on the desk with a light click. “There is something definitely, different, about this animal. We need to see how that can help us.”

“So nothing has a purpose unless it benefits you?”

“That’s not what I said, Kacie.”

“And if it works? What then.”

“Then we find others.”

Kacie slumped in her chair. She couldn’t stop her mom from dying, she couldn’t stop the unicorn from dying, and deep down in her middle school heart, she knew she would never be able to stop herself from dying too. No magic in all the world could stop that. Maybe one day she would just disappear - like Eva's school friends. The way her mother had wanted to go. If no one had found her body, that's how it would have seemed. Paxton’s cell vibrated on the desk. “It’s ready.”

Back in the secret laboratory, the room was empty except for what looked to Kacie like an oversized crock pot. The air itself was sticky, and overwhelming. “You can be the first to look inside, if you want” Eva said, pointing to the small ladder beside the pot. Kacie climbed the ladder and looked down - here was the hope of her father, of Eva, the future of adhesives and the world – Kacie started to laugh.

“What is it?” Paxton asked, holding tight to Eva’s hand.

“Is it a plasma? Is it shifting states of matter? Does it look like magic?” Eva called.

Descending the ladder, Kacie chuckled, “Look for yourself.”

“Where are you going?” Paxton called out as she walked to the door, but Kacie just laughed, echoing all down the hallway.

Together, Eva and Paxton examined the shimmering and sticky mess, tears falling down their faces and mixing with the giant vat of simple, useless, glitter glue.