BEGINNINGS

13 – Not So Different After All

Finally, the work day was over. Pet closed the gun safe's door and locked it. She smiled to herself and tossed the pen back in its cup after finishing the paperwork. Jophrey, too, was ready to call it a day since the evening shift had already clocked in for work.

He looked at the gleeful hybrid. "Good to go?"

Pet nodded. "Oh yeah. Good to go and ready to be back in my room."

"Good. Let's get out of here, then." Jophrey collected his tan bag off the floor beside his desk and tossed it over his shoulder.

"What about Robert?"

"He's still at the veterinarian clinic and said he would probably be there until later this evening with the sick Rhino." He watched the hybrid frown a little. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind you stopping by and helping."

Pet snorted and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, okay. He'll probably make me stand off to the side, again, to prevent child endangerment."

The two people left the warden shack and strode down the sidewalk leading back to the primary zoo compound. "He and Mr. Hammond are just watching their butts, is all. It's best if you just stand off to the side for safe measure. Don't want the VIPs getting the wrong impression and possibly pushing for legal action should they misunderstand the situation."

"Then why not have me stay in my room for the day? At least there I could play video games and be out of the way."

Jophrey laughed and continued to accompany the teen until they were at the vet clinic. Outside in the pens, a Hyena was heard making its signature snicker-like sound while a few monkeys bounced around in their specialized cages. Walking around through the holding pens was Hammond still escorting his guests.

"Lovely," Pet breathed out quietly and strode towards the back entrance near the pens.

In her passing near where the others were standing, she momentarily locked gazes with the younger of the three men. Simon nodded to her in acknowledgment, Pet returning the gesture.

Inside the clinic, Robert was found standing next to Liz and assisting with handling a young chimpanzee getting seen for a check-up.

Pet joined them. "I thought you would be aiding the sick rhino, Rob. What's going on, here?"

Muldoon answered, smiling at Liz. She was laughing at the chimp trying to latch onto her continuously. "I was on my way there, when Hammond stopped me to answer the guest's questions."

"Fun, fun."

The vet continued teasingly. "Rob went and locked himself inside my office to hide right after. He just came out of hiding."

"Sounds about right," Pet snickered.

Muldoon grumbled. "Bloody tourists and their endless questions. I have better things to do than deal with that."

The side door leading to the pens opened, revealing a jovial Hammond with his just as company.

Liz sighed, "Here comes your friends, Robert." Muldoon stepped away and towards the office hallway. "Figures," Liz stated. The senior vet looked at Pet and arched a brow jokingly. "Are you going to go hide, next?"

"Screw that. I've been hiding all day, and besides, Hammond said I could work with the lesser dangerous animals while the others were still present. So..." she collected the juvenile chimp into her arms and welcomed it clinging onto her, "why not stay?"

The chatter shared between Hammond and Sanjay became louder the closer they got to the two women. Following quietly behind the two older men was Simon, him knowing better than to impede on his father's conversing unless allowed.

Hammond spoke, a bit annoyed at finding the hybrid present in the immediate vicinity but relieved she was with a docile animal and not wrestling a crocodile or tiger. He laughed, "Busy working, are we?"

Liz pressed a stethoscope to the chimp's back so she could listen to its heartbeat. "Giving Abigail, here, a routine checkup."

Wanting to see the animal better up close, Simon stepped past his father. His movement made Abigail turn her head to look at the approaching man and reached out an arm towards him. A moment later, Simon found himself the center of attention as Abigail clung onto him and started to pick at the buttons on his suit coat.

Sanjay was a bit speechless, Hammond widely smiling. "It's nothing to worry over. They're quite friendly, they are. Intelligent as they come and very curious."

"She loves buttons," Liz continued. "Hence why my lab coat can never stay closed when she's around." Her blue scrubs could be seen beneath the opened white coat displaying her name on the front. "Not to worry, though. She'll probably end up interested in something else in a few minutes."

No sooner had she said something, then Abigail started fumbling with the man's shiny tie clip. "Okay, I think that's enough," Sanjay said mildly annoyed. He wasn't liking the unprofessionalism his son was displaying.

Pet reached for the chimp and worked to pry her off the young man. "Sorry," she winced in a frown as she held the animal tightly to prevent it wandering off.

"It's fine," Simon awkwardly smiled, straightening out his suit coat and readjusting his tie. "She is curious, that's for sure."

While Hammond tried to distract his close friend by discussing possible dinner plans, Simon gave them no mind when talking to the docent game warden. "How long have you been working here?"

Pet held Abigail comfortingly when seeing Liz prepare a vaccination syringe. "This will be my second summer working under the docent educational program."

"Two years? Impressive. I take it you plan on doing it again next summer?"

Pet nodded, her blue-green eyes meeting his dark brown ones. "And the summer after that and the summer after that," she laughed. "Up until eighteen when I can apply for an apprenticeship to become a licensed game warden."

Listening and watching intently over the two people's conversation was Hammond, partially relieved at Pet's control to keep her eyes human-like in appearance but still concerned over her talking. Thankfully, she kept her head tilted a bit downwards and didn't open her mouth too much when speaking so as not to reveal her carnivorous teeth. At first glance with very little revealing, they appeared like anyone else's, but closer glance revealed one side of them angled to a point.

Simon pet Abigail on her back. "I take it you love animals a lot, then?"

Again, Pet nodded. Liz administered the vaccination, Abigail flinching. After the last of the three treatments were given, the chimp was given a handful of dried fruit pieces as a treat. The senior vet then took the ape from the hybrid and carried her outside to a holding pen.

Sanjay didn't look all too happy, despite Hammond's efforts to lessen the tension. The father coldly said, "Come, Simon. It's almost time to get changed and ready for our dinner arrangement, and you need to clean up. You reek of that monkey…"

The younger man appeared a bit hurt by the comment, but nodded in acknowledgment, anyway. He sympathetically smiled at the teen in apologizing for his father's hurtful words and gave a farewell nod. She waved back and nervously smiled at Hammond's scrutinizing gaze.


After leaving the veterinarian labs and offices, Pet went to pay Mr. Buster a visit. When she left, she had a Busted Bucket in the trailer of the wagon and wheels, but not for the wrong reason. Since the special visitors were still at the zoo, both Hammond and Muldoon mutually agreed to having her do something other than assist in animal transport and pen cleanup. It didn't bother, Pet, anyway. It usually didn't take her long to clean the restrooms and refill the toilet and paper towel dispensers nor scrape the gum out from under the picnic tables. After doing these particular chores for as long as she had, she had developed a quick method.

Then came emptying the many trash cans. It really wasn't that bad come closing time and sometimes, they weren't even half full. The worst of it was during and right after the lunch hours between eleven AM and two in the afternoon. Except the petting zoo trash cans. They were always a mess. Anything else mostly consisted of empty drink cups, popsicle sticks, and popcorn bags.

Pet hoisted a three-quarter full bag out of a trashcan and tied it off. It was tossed into the trailer with the rest of the trash bags and a clean one put in its place. Wafting through the air were the rich aromas of cooking food coming from the zoo's reservation-only fancy restaurant, The Savannah Star.

Pet couldn't figure out why Hammond opened such a place at the zoo, but it seemed to do well. It was built up and positioned near the giraffe habitat so the guests could watch the animals and even the sunset during the right time of day. It just so happened this was the right time of day and it was beautiful, too.

Bold colors of oranges, yellows and even reds painted the vast cloudless horizon as the glow of the sun was a brilliant amber yellow. Pet always loved this time of day and stood there to bask in nature's splendor.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

The foreign accented voice startled Pet and she shrieked in response. Her head snapped around to meet the friendly gaze of the young man she identified as Simon. Her eyes, wait, her eyes! Pet quickly snapped her gaze away from the curious individual. Were they normal? She had no way of telling without a mirror and a mirror wasn't exactly something she kept in her back pocket. Shit! Her sunshades! She left them in the warden shack. As if things couldn't get any worse. She was so totally busted. She just knew it.

Pet nervously cleared her throat and fought with the flip top lid on the restaurant patio's trash can. "Yeah, yeah it is. I never get tired of watching the sunsets here. The sunrises are just as gorgeous, but only if there's just the right amount of clouds in the sky."

She set, more like dropped, the lid and shoved the many empty cups down into the bag so they wouldn't fall everywhere. Simon eyed her curiously. Why was she so nervous? Maybe simple conversation would ease her, some.

Simon was curious. "Why the clouds?"

Pet inadvertently ripped a hole in the trash bag with her claws and mentally kicked herself in the butt for not wearing her gloves. A couple of cups and a wadded-up hotdog wrapper pelted the concrete ground. "What? Oh, yeah, yeah, the sunrises. Sometimes," she began, tying up the top of the ripped trash bag, "the sunrises can be really colorful. Pastel pinks, purples…sometimes a touch of yellow… If there's clouds then the clouds will really show all those colors."

Pet knelt down to pick up the cups and paper only to find the esteemed guest helping her. Why? Why was he even there?! She was so panicked. He handed her a cup that she pretty much snatched out of his hand and shoved back into the torn open hole. The look on his face bothered her. She couldn't blame him. Her jerking the cup away could've been taken offensively, seeing how he was trying to help her.

"Sorry," Pet grumbled. "Thank you." Why didn't he just go away?!

But it wasn't that, that took him by surprise. It was her hands and oddly shaped pointed fingernails. Pet tossed the bag into the trailer, being mindful of the hole, and fetched the rubber gloves out of the plastic bin. She tore a clean bag off its roll and shook it out to put into the trash can.

Simon dusted off his hands, not like they were dirty, and straightened his suit coat. "How many docents are there? Besides you?"

Pet shrugged. "Twelve or so. There's three with veterinarian studies, but most of them are working with specialized animal handlers. I think there's more reptile and aviary docents with pachyderm coming in close behind."

Simon leaned against a nearby patio table. "Are you the only one working with the game wardens?" Pet bit her lips together nervously and nodded. "I find that interesting."

"Why so?" The hybrid slid the broom out from under the pile of trash bags and began sweeping the bits of paper and empty candy wrappers out from under the tables and chairs.

"After what I saw with the lions, the work looks intense. Doesn't it scare you?" The memory of coming to Muldoon's nephew's aid when trapped with the tiger quickly came to mind.

Pet popped out, "Nope." She built up a small trash pile and started sweeping up another pile elsewhere. "From what I've learned, the fear of what could happen goes out the window when knowing what needs to be done to prevent worst case scenarios kicks in."

Simon complimented the young woman on her dedication to what little bit she did and smiled. A part of him strongly envied her. Here he was, expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a businessman at only twenty-two years old as he had been since sixteen and yet, here was this teenaged girl making the most out of each day. He wasn't too partial to being stuck in an office or even a conference room while his father rattled on with his executives. Not when there was a perfectly good sunshine filled day outside beckoning him to enjoy it.

Simon's questioning broke the silence. "What do your parents think of your docent work? They must be proud."

Pet paused in sweeping to look up and into one of the restaurant's many large windows. Visible just inside was Hammond and Sanjay drinking wine. "What's a mother? And as far as my father, well…I keep hoping I'll make him proud one day."

"I can relate to that all too well." Simon frowned. "Sometimes the mother part, too. My father has me joining him on business trips to get me better familiarized with how the family corporation runs." Simon sighed, next. "It is for that reason I do not get to spend much time with my mother."

Pet lowered her head and kept sweeping. It seemed she and the wealthy young man weren't so different after all. They were both tools of their fathers' use for their business's success, while they struggled to gain approval in the process. Well, aside from her being a genetically created hybrid and him not. The two small trash piles were swept into a dust pan and it emptied into the hole in the ripped bag.

"Simon!" called Sanjay from the restaurant's patio doorway. "Come back inside!"

The younger Masrani kicked a loose pebble on the ground with a glossy polished black loafer and nodded. Before he left, he gave the docent game warden another glance. She was securing her cleaning tools in the trailer. "It was good talking to you, Miss."

Pet gave him a single nod and removed the tire chocks behind the four-wheeler and trailer. "You too, sir." She threw the wooden blocks on top of the trash and got back on the ATV.

From inside the restaurant, Hammond was seething under the collar. He told that damn kid to stay away from his guests! No telling how much of herself she gave away in her recklessness. No sunshades, never mind it getting dark soon, and she wasn't wearing gloves when he first saw her. The fact he watched her talk to the boy didn't help matters, any. A part of him told him he was overreacting. Maybe nothing bad would come from their little chat. But then again, what if something did?

Sanjay and Simon sat back down, Hammond staring the young man down. How much could he trust Simon Masrani when it came to Pet's well being should he ever learn of the dark secret she was?