Page 1 of Waste Some Time
1
KATIE
The sleek,furry face in front of Katie nodded from the rock and waved her small paw in the air.
“Look at you!”
Katie smiled at Rose, the smaller of the aquarium’s river otters. She’d come a long way since joining them earlier in the year.
After Katie clicked and threw a shrimp treat at Rose, she said, “Guess what?”
Rose tilted her head as if she knew Katie was asking her a question. “It’s almost New Year’s Eve. Less than a week away now. You know what that means?”
Rose tilted her head in the other direction and waved her paw again.
“That’s right. That means a new year.”
Katie gave a big, exaggerated grin to her furry charge, while Rose quickly swallowed the treat.
“This is going to be our best year yet. You and me, kid.” When a larger otter joined them on a different rock, Katie added, “You, too, Mel. We’re going to rock this year.”
Not that either otter needed more luck or success or whatever Katie was manifesting. Both had come such a long way since joining the aquarium. They were approaching Mel’s rescueversary, and Katie couldn’t be more pleased with how well she was doing.
As for Rose, an organization in California had rescued her as an orphaned pup. After they were unable to reintroduce her to the wild, Rose was transferred to the Audubon Aquarium. She wasn’t yet two years old, and the aquarium’s five-year-old resident, Mel, took to her new exhibit-mate as if they were long-lost family.
Mel did most of the visitors’ show on her own, but they’d been adding the younger otter in at the end of the performance. Rose had been quick to learn a few commands, observing Mel for extra cues, and waving was the most recent addition to her repertoire.
Katie put her hands on her hips as she assessed both otters. “I guess, for you two, that just means lots more seafood. Not a bad goal. Oh, and applause. You love applause, don’t you?”
Mel stood on her hind legs and did a little twirl. She hadn’t done it on command, so she didn’t get a treat for that one. Katie said, “Water,” then threw in some larger shrimps for them to chase.
As the pair dove into the water, Katie smiled and told them goodbye. She’d finished her last visitors’ show for the day, and since she was in early on Saturdays, another keeper would be around before closing time to make a cleaning pass, fill their food bowls, and scatter mealworms, grapes, raisins, crickets, and mollusks throughout the habitat for the evening.
She left the exhibit and headed toward the small staff room to grab her coat and bag from her locker. Stephen was already at his own locker, having finished his shift as well.
“How are things in the Amazon?” she asked him.
“Oh, the usual,” he said. “Steamy and squawky. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The tall man had shaggy blond hair and dark green eyes. He wore the same blue polo as Katie, with the difference being his excessively tanned arms, considering it was winter, compared to her pale arms.
She met Stephen when he joined the zoo staff as the aquarium’s Amazon-Orinoco bird keeper a couple of years earlier. They’d instantly clicked, and he quickly became Katie’s best friend.
“Didn’t see you this morning,” Stephen said. “Did you sneak in late to avoid me? You still haven’t filled me in on that party you went to without me.”
“You had family Christmas stuff.”
“To which you were invited, but chose to party instead.”
Katie waved him away with her hand. “You needed time with your sister.”
“Well, she didn’t show up anyway,” he said, the disappointment clear in his eyes.
To say that Stephen and his family were close would be a massive understatement. They were a huge bunch of extroverts who had welcomed Katie into their fold from the first time Stephen brought her over last year.
Katie had been excited to finally meet Stephen’s sister, who lived in San Diego and rarely found time to return home. But Katie had wanted to give the family a chance to have time with her first. So instead of spending the evening with them, Katie had gone to a Christmas Eve-Eve party with her cousin Rachel.
“Wait, she couldn’t make the trip for the holidays after all?”
