I rolled into the
parking lot a little later than I meant—4:20am—But there was no sign of the
fish market delivery truck, so I was safe. Rick wouldn’t hesitate to call my
boss even at this hour if I kept him waiting. He was good like that.
As I entered
through the kitchen, I turned off the alarm systems and tossed my gear on the
counter. I’d have to scrub everything down before I started food prep, even
though it had all been scrubbed down the night before. I’d worked in fast food
and a few fancy restaurants during college. They had nothing on food prep
safety here.
Still no sign of
Rick—I couldn’t be late, but he kept his own schedule. I unlocked the back door
and went out to say hi to my aquarium favorites. Trudy and Nelson, the nurse
sharks, were snoozing against the sandy bottom of the big tank. Elvis, one of
the green moray eels, bobbed in and out of his hiding place in the rocks, but
he didn’t come out to see me. Snagglepuss, the sawtooth shark, was resting on
top of the glass tunnel as usual. I walked on through, enjoying the quiet.
Yogi, the green
sea turtle, looked up from his nesting spot and blinked sleepy eyes at me, then
tucked his bill back under his flipper. I laughed, thinking he looked like my
roommate, Sam, complaining “Five more minutes! Just give me five more minutes…maybe
ten…”
Ah, Janis, another
of the green morays, swam along the tunnel to greet me. I waved my arm in a
slow circle, and she followed the motion, undulating her long body in a loop,
keeping her head exactly the same distance from my hand. Unnerving, really. I
was glad to be out here. I wiggled my fingers and slid them off the glass as I
left the tunnel, heading for my favorite morning greeting.
As I approached
the two-story glass, I stretched my arms wide and leaned against it, pressing
my forehead on the cool glass. Aurora appeared through the dark water, and as
she swam toward the glass, I felt her sonar thrum down my body from head to
toe. She swam up and dropped her tail down so we were almost even, her fins
stretched out opposite my arms. Her rounded melon quivered, and her mouth was
open in the familiar beluga grin. I smiled back and waved my arms up and down, imitating
her fin stoked. “Good morning, gorgeous. Now, I better check on Harry.” Aurora
backed away and nodded her beak up and down before swimming back into the dark
water. I headed for my last stop on my morning circuit, the octopus tank.
And, great. No
sign of Harry. I walked around the tank and pulled out my pen flashlight to
shine in his coffee can cave just to be sure. Damn, damn, Damn, An octopus can
get through any opening its beak will fit through. We had yet to find a tank
that Harry Houdini couldn’t escape. Trouble was, one day it was going to get
him killed. Now, where was the sneaky fellow? I felt a drop on my head and
looked up just in time to see Harry stretched out, falling onto my face, and
wrapping his tentacles around my head…
TBC?
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Dogs
in House
|
Houdini
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Time
writing
|
40 minutes
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May
word count
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1607
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