Chapter five

Alexis Alexander

Zurich, Switzerland

0500 Hours

Monday, 12, 1945

I was woken up by a beeping sound. I'm a bit of a light sleeper, so I got up and saw that it 5:00 AM. I heard some swearing in Russian, and I managed to understand a bit of it. (Having a roommate that's Russian can really help you understand the language.) It wasn't Natasha; she was still asleep. It was her brother, Boris.

I heard Natasha wake up soon afterwards, and they both started talking in rapid-fire Russian. I couldn't understand a single word of it, and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. After a while, I heard some slight sobbing from Natasha's room and went to investigate.

I opened her door, and Boris was packing up his stuff. He looked at me and said: "I'm sorry, Alexis, but I have been called in early from leave. I need to go now. It was nice meeting you."

Natasha was still sobbing a little, and I started to comfort her. I had no idea what it was like to lose, or possibly lose a brother or sibling because I was an only child, but I did my best. Eventually, she calmed down, and we both went to school.

It was a boring walk to a boring place, especially considering what we could do now. Once we got there, we spent the next few hours learning things that we'd probably forget in a few hours, and we'd never find use for them anyways.

At lunch, Natasha, Leang, and I sat together, talking about what to do with this new ability we all now shared. We didn't worry too much about anybody overhearing because we where all speaking in English, and only a few non-American/Canadian/British students knew more then a few words of it.

I had jokingly made the suggestion that we go into show business with this thing, but that Leang and Natasha quickly shot down idea. I seemed to be the only one who thought that was funny. Leang suggested that we try and find out if the 'morphing' ability was good for use on all kinds of creatures, not just a cat or a dog.

I pointed out that I was volunteering for a job in the local Zoo, so I'd be able to find out. I heard no objections from either of them, so when we where let out of school, I walked in, and asked for a volunteer job.

The Zookeeper thought about that carefully, then agreed, I guess because of the war, all the men where going off to fight and that just left the women to fill the jobs. He started to train me in handling the various tranquilizers, in case I had to give the animal a check-up, and he also showed me how to ward off attacks from certain animals like alligators.

It was about 7:00 PM when I went for my first real job in the zoo: feed the sharks. On one of the breaks I had, I spent the whole thing simply looking at the sharks swimming around in their enclosures. They had all kinds: Makos, Hammerheads, Angels, Tigers, Blue sharks, whitetip Reefs, a couple of Basking sharks, and one Great White.

Now, unlike most people, I'm not ignorant when it comes to sharks. I actually think they're kind of cool, and I know for a fact that only a handful of them are actually dangerous to humans, but, one look at that Great White swimming around sent waves of awe and fear through me.

I put on a SCUBA suit and put on a protective chain mail suit on top of hat in case it got curious and wanted to taste me to see what I was. Great Whites are like that: most shark attacks are mostly from the shark taking a 'test-bite' to figure out what it's about to eat. In fact, more people have been killed by dog attacks then Great White attacks in the past hundred years.

Anyways, after putting on the protective gear, I was handed a stick with a bit of meat on one end of it that I was to use so the sharks wouldn't bite my hand by accident. I dove in, and the first shark to come towards me for a feeding was the Great White. It made me nervous, but it swam almost lazily around me, waiting for me to feed it. I held the stick with the meat on the end of it ready, and the shark simply swam up to me and grabbed it!

It was so close, I could actually reach out and touch it, and so that's what I did. I took off one of the chain mail gloves, and pressed my hand against its snout. The shark went docile for a moment, then continued eating, and finally swam away.

The White Tip Reef sharks and Tiger sharks started swimming around me now, each waiting to be fed now that the Great White was gone. I fed them all, and them put on a bit of a performance for the visitors of feeding the rest of the sharks by hand now that the dangerous ones where full.

Well, actually, that's what I was going to do anyways. The blue sharks and the Makos aren't too dangerous because their mouths are so small that they couldn't eat me in only one or two bites.

Once I fed all the sharks, I came up and got out of the tank. Once my breathing mask was off, I asked: "How was that?"

The zookeeper nodded and said: "Good work, Alexis, and I must say; I admire your courage. Not many people, especially first-time employees, would go and feed the sharks alone."

I smiled all the way to the dressing room where I took of the SCUBA suit, dried off, and got dressed again. Once I got out, I had another job to do: help the staff give a Bald Eagle a checkup.

Once I got there, I saw that the eagle was sitting on one of the bird keeper's arms. I went closer, and said that I was here to help these guys with the checkup. I asked if I could touch him and they said: "She, Trish here is a female. And sure, you can touch her. Just don't touch her beak. She doesn't like that."

I stroked the eagle's head, and I heard a cooing sound as I acquired her DNA. Once I was finished, she turned her head, and nibbled my finger. It didn't hurt at all, more like what I said it was: a nibble. I laughed slightly, and the bird keeper said: "wow, Alexis, you must have a way with animals or something. I've never seen Trish warm up to someone that fast. I think you two are going to be good friends here."

Once I was finished for the day, I went back to the hotel and Natasha asked: "where were you, Alexis? Weren't we supposed to study together this evening?"

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. "Oh, sorry Natasha, I managed to get a volunteer job at the Zoo. I completely forgot about that. I'll make it up to you though, I promise."

She was satisfied with that, and went to watch the news. Not the local news, though, she had no interest in what was happening in Zurich. She was watching something on the War. She was watching to make sure her brother was still alive and well.

She watched all the news reports before going to sleep. She hadn't seen her brother on any of them when they showed the causalities, so I guess to her, that was good enough.