This is something I wrote for Earth Day!
Keep the Earth healthy, fellas! Keep our Mother Earth healthy!
This story is dedicated to Cornelia Hale – Guardian of Earth!
This oneshot also kinda leads in to my own adaptation of WITCH!
Zookeeper
"Keep a smile on your face, Corny. That's it."
13-year-old Cornelia Hale swallowed back an indignant scream. Why, oh why, had she ended up with this crappy job?
Okay, to be honest, the job didn't start out crappy at first…
Even as a young girl, she had been fascinated by living creatures, whether they be plant or animal. Though she preferred to study plants.
"Now make sure these donkeys get 13 kilos of thistles each," the supervising zookeeper had instructed her. Distributing the thistles had been a challenge she readily accepted, using the task as second-hand practice to boost her math skills. The quadrupedal creatures took an immediate liking to the beautiful young girl handing out their greens. To show gratitude they pranced and leaped about, kicking up dust clouds. Cornelia didn't mind, though she had to shield her eyes for a bit.
She then got to toss fish fillets at the orcas. "Irma would be so jealous!" she thought with a grin. The orcas twirled gracefully in their element, their black and white coats a perfect pattern balance. Their joyous calls echoing and reaching deeply into the hearts of bystanders. The sight and the sounds of these divine, oceanic beings was a taste of harmony for the young Hale.
"Yep. Irma's going to flip when I tell her 'bout this!"
She had even more fun desires unexpectedly fulfilled later on. Her last task before lunch break was to help with the transporting of American Sweetgum saplings (Liquidambar styraciflua) from the storerooms to the squirrel pens. Those were her favorite kind of trees. The delivery people observing her racing back and forth transporting the plants reported her as "lively, spunky – a hardworking, lovely little girl".
Lunch was a peaceful affair. She could just close her eyes, pop some food in her mouth, and just listen to the lush ambience of Mother Nature.
No disturbances here!
At least… not yet…
As her mind returned to the present, she was sucked out of the reverie of the previous few hours by the distinctive "ooh-ooh-ah-ah" of primates.
She restrained another urge to screech.
"Alright, Cornelia. Moping ain't gonna get you outta this. Plow in and get it done. Simple as pie… I wish."
Cleaning the first side of the square cage went quickly and without issue. Three monkeys bugged her while she was mopping some grime off the upper bars on the second side. Cornelia made sure to stay well out of reach. The bars vibrated soundly with bodily impacts. The monkeys snarled in irritation. "Whoa!" Cornelia chuckled nervously, swiftly plucking the cleaning equipment from the floor and jogging to the third side as fast as her legs would allow her.
The fourth and final side. She reached with her mop and soapy water sloshed the array of metal sticks – which seemed to barely keep the monkeys at bay now. They groaned and screamed in sour torment as they bore the weight of multiple, peppery primates. She had almost finished when she found some stubborn brown spots on several lower bars. They weren't washing off. Grimacing, she grabbed a soaked sponge in each hand and started scrubbing. No sooner had she done that the monkeys rattled said bars loose and splattered berries and bananas in her face.
"Uck!" she choked, dropping the sponges and bringing her hands to her face in an untamed fluster to try and wipe the muck off. Unfortunately that left her open to attacks from other angles.
"Aah! My hair is NOT bananas!"
Taking the strands like a rope, Cornelia pulled. With all the might of a seasoned sailor, battling against the makeshift forces of nature coming from primate arms, of all sources. She eventually triumphed… at a cost.
"Augh! You've mangled and trashed my hair!" she squealed in utter indignation and repulsion. She searched for her most civil word in her profanity dictionary. "You utter muppets!"
Her supervisors rushed in and attempted to pacify the untamed uprising. To no avail.
"That's IT! I DRAW the line at monkeys! I'm gonna get my parents on the PHONE!"
Sheffield Institute couldn't issue a court case against the zoo, even when the investigators found that rust had fatigued the metal bars of the monkey cages, so the school staff instead paid reparations to the Hale family for community service gone completely wrong. Like, completely.
"I still can't believe that damn rust caused all of my misery…" grumbled an irate 13-year-old blonde girl. Her little sister idled up to her. "I think you made an excellent monkey. You sure act like one at times!" Lillian squealed with a cracking grin. Her older sister swivelled on her heels sharply, an incandescent glow on her face. "And… look like one at times as well…" Lillian mumbled nervously, trying not to smirk… too much. Her half-hearted attempt at resistance paid off, however.
Cornelia just closed her eyes and let out a resigned "Shut up, shrimp."
Well, that's that!
Honestly… What. The. Fudge. Sheffield Institute? You need to set aside your community service programmes until you can tighten your safety procedures.
This event will definitely be mentioned in my main story! Which I hope to update within the next month!
I mean, damn is Yr 12 college life hard as!
I've still got some programming homework to do!
Feel free to drop a review! It will very much be appreciated – especially in this time period when schoolwork doubles in output!
By the way, did anyone catch a reference I made to Toy Story 2?
Have a good day/night, my friends!