Third Person P.O.V:
It was Edwin's second day at working in the museum and he walks in through the front glassdoors and gets in line to check in with security. The museum is mostly empty since it is only 7:30 in the morning.
Edwin goes up to the security desk and this time a security guard with dark blonde hair, green eyes and a birthmark on their right cheek.
"Hello, how are you doing?" Edwin asks the security guard while giving her his temporary ID.
"I'm fine, I'm just a little tired...Edwin." She replied while looking at the ID.
"I can understand, we all can have those days." Edwin said in a calm tone.
"So Beshte has told me that you work in the genetics lab, how's that going for you?" She asked.
"Oh it's great, so far we are analyzing the genomes of different genomes of lichens to determine how exactly environmental correlates with the mutations of the lichen genomes." Edwin said.
"That's interesting, wish you luck with that." She said.
"You too uh...Fuli" Edwin said while reading her name tag. As her was walking past the security desk, he accidentally bumped into another security guard that was walking in the opposite direction. This guard was male and had long red hair, a light beard and hazel eyes.
"Watch it ponytail! You could have scratched my shoes." The guard says in frustration.
"Oh I'm sorry sir, I guess I was a little distra.." Edwin said before he was interrupted.
"Just stay out of my way and watch where you're going next time." The guard firmly say before letting out a grunt of frustration.
The guard then walks behind one of the desks and sits down. While Fuli turned her head to the other guard.
"Uh Kion...you bumped into him." She said.
"What? No I didn't! He was clearly in my path." Kion defended. Then another guard enters, and this guard was relatively shorter than Kion and Fuli. They had blue eyes, some freckles on the cheeks and black hair with a white streak in one of his bangs.
"Actually, Kion you did bump into him, you accidentally walked into his path while you were on your phone." The other guard said.
"Since when did you become so attentive Bunga? Whatever, just focus on work for now." Kion said with irritation.
"Okay fine geez!?" Bunga said. He then turned his head to Fuli who was at the desk next to him.
"Man, the old Kion was much less temperamental." Bunga whispered.
"I know, but we could discuss this later we don't want him to hear-" Fuli whispered.
"What are you too whispering about?!" Kion interrupted
"Oh nothing, Bunga was just curious about the lunch breaks, and I was just telling him that the schedule is on the PDF Ono sent us." Fuli replied.
"Do you think about anything else other than food Bunga?" Kion said with an irritated expression on his face.
Around half an hour has passed and now Kion was scanning Rafiki's ID, and after he was finished, Rafiki started to walk in the direction of the human resources offices. But before he goes to the offices, Rafiki decides to talk to the two women at the information desk.
The women were filling some paperwork and organizing pamphlets when Rafiki approached their desk. He knocked on it to get their attention.
"Hello Muhimu, Twiga, how have your mornings been?" Rafiki asked
"Oh hi Rafki, our morning has been fine but it has also been quite boring. We've just been organizing these pamphlets since we got here." Muhimu, the black haired woman, replied.
"Yeah, sometimes we came to the point of trying to purposely disagree on how these pamphlets should be organized." Twiga, the brown haired woman, added.
"I understand, mornings can be quite lonely. Sometimes I sit by Zazu's desk in reception just to have someone to talk to. So how have you kids been doing?" Rafiki said.
"I wish I knew, since Hamu moved to New York for grad school, he doesn't respond to my texts anymore. I heard studying to become a psychiatrist is time consuming but I didn't think it was that time consuming." Muhimu added.
"I have that same problem with Juhudi, she really seems to be enjoying Los Angeles. Sure I can understand the weather, but I wish she could just call me after her days at the conservatory." Twiga added.
"Ah, I guess everyone needs some time to find themselves." Rafiki replied.
"I guess, but they couldn't leave at least one message once in a while." Twiga said.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what millennials are into these days. Well I have to go to my office. See ya!" Rafiki said while resuming his walk to the office.
"See ya!" Both ladies said. The soon went to check their emails and files on their computers.
"I honestly don't know how other people deal with the whole empty nest thing. It seems that ever since Hamu moved out, my life has basically been reduced to pamphlets, emails and deskwork. I'm starting to get tired of this while just going home to watch TV until I sleep." Muhimu said.
"Well then go out or get a hobby?" Twiga replied while typing an email.
"I am trying to read more and I just ordered a stain glass window painting kit." Muhimu replied.
"Sure, that's a start, but you should also try to find hobbies that involve socializing others." Twiga said.
Twiga then resumed to pull her phone out of her pocket and pressed on with a white flame design on a redish-pink background.
"Also if you want to checkout the dating scene, I overheard some of the tour guides talking about this Tinder app. I just got it yesterday so how it works is that shows you photos of people you might be interested in. If someone interests you, then you swipe right, but if not, you swipe left." Twiga explained.
"Uhh...I don't know about this Twiga." Muhimu said hesitantly.
"Oh common Muhimu, it could be fun, it's not just for younger people; there are people in our age group in this app too." Twinga replied.
"Okay, I guess, I can just take a look at it." Muhimu said. After that the two women resumed with their average work day.
An hour passes by, and the museum is starting to crowd with more tourists and visitors. While a line of six or seven people is at the information desks, a woman with short light brown hair and bangs, and sky blue eyes started to walk towards a group of people in her blue tour guide jacket.
"Hello there group A, my name is Vitani, I'll be your tour guide for today. I hope that you guys are enjoying your stay in Chicago." The guide said. She began to gesture her hand towards the titanosaurus skeleton behind her.
"This specimen here is Maximo, he's a titanosaurus, or in scientific terms a patagotitan mayorum, and it lived during the Cretaceous period nearly 100 million years ago. We have had this specimen since last year and it has been described and one of the largest dinosaur specimens that has ever been found and collected by any museum." Vitani said as the group of tourists begins to take pictures of the skeleton.
"Okay, does anyone have any questions before we move onto our next stop?" Vitani asked the group. One person, a brown-haired teenage girl wearing a green short-sleeve shirt and blue jeans raised their hand. "Yes?" Vitani said gesturing to the girl
"What happened to Sue, the T-Rex skeleton that used to be here?" The girl asked.
"Oh, due to Maximo's size, we just had to move her to the upper level in our Evolving Planet Exhibit if you still want to see her. Anymore questions?" Vitani answered.
A young boy with blonde hair and a red shirt with jeans raised his hand. "Yes?" Vitani replied.
"I'm just curious, is Maximo just as old as you or is he a few years younger?" the boy asked while laughing afterwards. This left Vitani with an angered expression on her face.
"Hey! listen here you little piece of.." Vitani angrily said before realizing that she can't say what she wanted to say in the middle of work, especially towards a child. She then took a deep breath.
"Actually, all of us including myself are millions if not hundreds of millions of years younger than Maximo and I would recommend keeping the punch lines at home young man." Vitani said in a stern and authoritative voice towards the kid.
"Okay, let's move on to the Nature Walk and Messages from the Wilderness Exhibit." Vitani said, while leading her group across the hall.
After about an hour, Vitani and her tour group headed to the upper level exhibits. While that is happening, the main floor gift shop is thriving with activity. After giving receipt to a customer, the cashier with dirty blond hair and green eyes decided to stock some of the shelves.
"Hey Emma, can you take over for register for me, I'm going to stock some of the shelves." The woman asked. Emma soon walked right towards the register.
"No problem Tiffu, I think a box figurines and photobooks are in the back so check there," Emma replied.
"Thanks." Tiffu said in response with a gentle smile.
Tiffu then walked towards the backroom where she saw two boxes and grabbed the one to the left. She then took out a set of keys and used one of them to cut through the tape on the box. She opens the box to see that it was filled with small figurines which depicted images of Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. Of course there are the classic ones like Anubis, Bastet and Ra, but there were also new figurines of gods such as Isis and Thoth.
She then took the figurines out of the box and began to place them on the shelves. While stacking the shelves, she began to hear two sets of footsteps running near her.
"Hey I saw that toy first!" A young voice yelled.
"You gotta catch me first!" Another young voice yelled.
Tiffu then stopped what she was doing and turned around to see two kids, a blonde haired boy and girl fighting over a plush dinosaur toy. Tiffu then placed the box of figurines down on the shelf and took a few steps towards the kids.
"Excuse me kids! There is no running in the store." Tiffu said with a raised voice. But the kids were out of her line of hearing, leaving Emma to take care of the situation.
Tiffu resumed to stack the figurines until she was finished with the whole box. Once she was finished, she went to the backroom again, placed the empty box in the recycling pile and used her key to open the next box. In that box were photo books that were entitled "Wildlife Photographer of the Year" and on the cover was a picture of a lioness drinking water. Tiffu could not help but look at the cover of this photo book, looking at it as if there was something familiar about it. As she brought the box out, she heard something shatter. She placed the box down and saw the two kids again still fighting over the toy but they accidentally broke a vase in the process. Fuming, Tiffu marched over to the kids while passing by Emma.
"Emma! Call someone to clean up the broken glass!" Tiffu yelled while stopping in front of the kids while their mother is on the phone.
"I told you kids that you weren't supposed to be running around the store and now you broke a vase in the process! I'm afraid that your mother is going to have to pay for the damages!" Tiffu yelled and then towards the kids' mother.
"Excuse me, Miss?" Tiffu asked. But the mother just put her hand towards Tiffu's face almost in a shushing manner.
"Can't you see that I'm in the middle of a phone call?! Hello, yes I'm back, can you believe that bitch Becky wore the same dress as me at the Smiths' dinner part-" the mother was about to say until Tiffu took the phone from her mother and hung it up for her.
"Hey?! I was in the middle of something!" The mother complained.
"Well you should be keeping an eye on your kids miss! Because you weren't watching your kids, they broke a five hundred dollar vase and I'm afraid that you have to pay for the damages." Tiffu practically yelled.
"Wait what? But I didn't break the vase?!" The mother said.
"Yeah but unless your kids have bank accounts, I'm afraid that you have to pay for the vase." Tiffu replied.
"Ugh! Fine, just put it on the Amex!" The mother grunted while giving Tiffu her credit card.
After swiping the credit card, the mother grabbed her kids and left the store in a frustrated manner. Tiffu then turns her head towards Emma
"Some parents, am I right?" Tiffu said. Emma just nodded her head in agreement.
In the lower level, the mother and her kids were leaving the museum, with the mother practically dragging the kids with both her hands.
"You listen here! Do you know how much money you just cost me? You just cost me that new purse I had my eyes on for months! Wait until your father hears about this! You two are grounded for a month, No tablets! No television!" The mother said while continuing to rant.
In the doorway to the Crowne play lab, a brown-haired man was looking at them. This man had a navy blue jacket, black pants and a name tag with a purple and yellow striped tie.
"Damn she has a temper." The man watches in disbelief. After watching this he just continues to walk around the PlayLab monitoring the exhibits just to really see kids playing with the exhibit material along with their parents nearby. Another museum employee approached him.
"Hey Timon, if you want, you can go on your lunch break, I just finished mine." The employee said.
"Okay, thanks for letting me know." Timon replied. Soon after that he exited the exhibit and walked a bee-line to the cafe. He then orders his food at the counter, which mainly consists of a pasta dish and a salad with a couple of croutons in it.
After receiving his meal, he then sat at a table in the middle of the cafe, he then heard footsteps approaching him and he saw that Bunga from security was sitting at his table.
"Hey Uncle Timon! How's it going?" Bunga asked.
"I'm fine, it's been quite a boring day today, while one kid did throw up in the hallway, but other than that many of the older kids that came seem more focused on their tablets than anything in the exhibit. Anything good for you?" Timon replied
"Ugh! Nothing! All I did all day was checking IDs and being lectured by Kion for cracking a few jokes on the job. Man I miss the old Kion." Bunga replied looking a little bored and depressed.
"Yeah, I have not really had excitement in a while." Timon agreed.
"Oh, I have an idea!" Bunga said while grabbing his bag and takes out a small slingshot.
"Where'd you get that?" Timon asked.
"Amazon, you can get practically anything on Amazon. Timon hand me your croutons!" Bunga replied. Timon gives Bunga a few of his croutons.
"Now come with me to behind the plant!" Bunga said before they hid themselves behind the plant. Bunga then loads the slingshot with a crouton.
"Where are you aiming Bunga?" Timon whispered.
"You should be asking, 'who am I aiming at?' and the answer is hopefully that guy from the genetics lab over there with the ponytail. I wonder how he will react." Bunga whispered in a devious tone.
Bunga then stretched the slingshot back and once he released, the crouton flew across the cafe and hit Edwin in the back of the head, making him briefly jolt.
"Ugh! What the fuck was that?!" Edwin screamed responding to the hit. While the other people from his lab where confused on what's going on. Bunga and Timon just hid behind the large plant pot.
"What's wrong Edwin?" Makini asked.
"Something just hit me in the back of the head…" Edwin said while beginning to scour the floor to find out what hit him, until he found a crouton on the floor.
"What is this a crouton?! Did I just get in the head by a fucking crouton?!" Edwin said before he looked behind him and nobody was in sight that was throwing croutons.
"Perhaps it was just some dumb kids pulling off a joke." Bupu said.
"Maybe you're right Bupu. Perhaps they didn't show themselves because they didn't have the guts to." Edwin replied and just forgot about it.
In the meantime, Bunga and Timon were hiding behind the plant, covering their mouths to try not let anyone hear their laughter.
"Okay, I admit that was pretty funny!" Timon said while muffling his last chuckle.
"I know! That guy was like 'someone hit me with a fucking crouton', what a dweeb!" Bunga replied.
"Let me try! Let me try!" Timon asked Bunga. Bunga then handed Timon the slingshot and Timon loaded the crouton onto the slingshot.
"I'm going to try and get Vuruga's forehead." Timon said while pulling the strap.
"Yeah, give it your best shot, Timon!" Bunga said. But while he said that, he accidentally bumps into Timon's arm, screwing up his aim and making him release the slingshot.
The crouton did hit someone, but it wasn't Vuruga's forehead….it was Makuu's in the table next to hers. Makuu then became enraged and decided to leave his table and give who shot the crouton a piece of his mind.
"Uh Abort! Abort!" Bunga screamed while he and Timon dropped the slingshot and started to run and scream.
Makuu begins to chase them and Jasiri got up from the table to try to hold back Makuu.
"You two assholes! I told you a million times never to bother me during meals and you interpret that as permission to fuck around with me?! I swear that I'm going to rip your heads from each your goddamn bodies!" Makuu yelled.
After Makuu and Jasiri ran out, the scientists from the genetics lab just sat there and watched the scene.
"Woah, when you guys said that Makuu guy had a temper, you were NOT kidding." Edwin said to the others.
"Yeah, and you were right it was two kids who hit you with the crouton…two overgrown kids." Vuruga said. After that, the group just shared a laugh.
Two hours after the incident, Jasiri was working in the fossil lab and she was just brushing off one of her newest specimens. At the same time, Makuu walks back into the lab after his appointment with Human Resources.
"Hi Jasiri, where were the Triassic period specimens that I was working on/" Makuu asked and a lackadaisical tone.
"Right where you left them, how was your appointment with HR?" Jasiri replied.
"It was just like my last meeting with them, I had to talk with Timon and Bunga, we were forced to apologize to each other, they promised not to do it again, and Rafiki gave me some tea but I have no idea what it's supposed to be good for." Makuu replied with a hint of frustration.\
"How many times do I have to tell you to be careful of your temper, this is like your third visit to HR this year because of it. Perhaps this project could help you get your mind off of it." Jasiri said firmly.
"Ehh maybe you're right." Makuu replied unenthusiastically.
The two preparators worked on their respective specimens for three more hours. Until Jasiri started to gather her things and carefully place her specimens in the appropriate storage spaces.
"I'm going to try to catch the Red Line. Want to come?" Jasiri asked.
"No thanks, I think I'm just going to stay here a little longer to catch up on the work I missed due to that HR appointment."
"Okay, see you tomorrow then!" Jasiri said.
"See you later, Jasiri." Makuu said.
Jasiri then proceeded to walk out the lab, took her lab coat off, checked out and exited the lab. She then began to approach the stairs when she saw that Edwin was also approaching the stairs.
"Man we constantly bump into each other don't we?" Jasiri cheerfully said. Edwin then notices Jasiri and gives out a light laugh.
"Yeah, we do. This is like the third time this week." Edwin replies.
Yeah, perhaps we are destined to meet." Jasiri jokingly said. Both just laughed as they went down the stairs.
"So how was work at the genetics lab?" Jasiri asked.
"Well there was nothing new, we just did another set of gel electrophoresis with different genus of lichen. Although as you saw in the cafe, two employees pelted me with a crouton." Edwin replied.
"Oh yeah, they hit Makuu too and her had to go to HR for that outburst." Jasiri replied.
"Oh dear, I hope everything is alright with him." Edwin said with a hint of concern.
"Don't worry, he, Timon and Bunga are fine now and he is even staying a little later today to catch up on the work he missed." Jasiri said.
"I guess I can understand that. Oh and funny thing when I got to work this morning, a security guard freaked out at me for bumping into him." Edwin replies.
"Really? Wait, did this guard have long red hair?" Jasiri asked.
"Yeah, you know him?" Edwin replies.
"Then you must have met Kion, he can be a bit impulsive." Jasiri said.
"Okay, I'll make sure to remember that." Edwin said, as they passed through the glassdoors and began to walk towards the Roosevelt Red Line stop.
"Yeah, but it's actually kind of a shame, he was not always like this. He used to be such a fair, level-headed and caring guy to be around but that all went south after returned from the army." Jasiri said.
"Really? He served in the army? That's funny because I know another security guard who also served in the army. Do you by any chance know Beshte?" Edwin replies.
"Oh yeah I've known Beshte and Kion for years. They've been practically best friends for years, they were in the army together and they were also in the Li- I meant they were in the..line of trouble a lot during their school days." Jasiri said hesitantly.
"Okay? Just out of curiosity, what do you like to do during your free time?" Edwin asked.
"Well I like to jog, I also like to sketch on occasion, I like to go to the gym and workout sometimes, I like to read, I play the occasional game of Dungeons and Dragons, and I also like to go on long walks, even when most of them don't have any particular destination." Jasiri said as they were a block away from the Red Line stop.
"No way! I jog too! Perhaps we should plan a route together one of these days!" Edwin said.
"We definitely should! What about you, what do you like to do outside work?" Jasiri asked.
"Well Along with jogging, I also like to read novels and science journals in both English and French, I occasionally play the double bass, as in an orchestra bass, not a rock bass. I also am a bit of a photographer in some occasions, but it's mostly with my phone really but I take terrible selfies if you ask." Edwin replies. The last part made Jasiri chuckle a little bit.
"That's cool, sometimes I like to read in Swahili and occasionally in Spanish. How long have you learned French?" Jasiri asked.
"Since I was in middle school, I guess you have learned Spanish at school, but I am just curious on where you learned Swahili?" Edwin asks.
"You're correct, I have been learning Spanish since middle school, but I have been speaking Swahilli since I was very young, I was born in the out- outer regions near the capital of Tanzania. I came to the US when I was about nine." Jasiri said and finished when the two sat down in their seats on the train.
"Okay that's cool. Even when we work in different departments of the museum, want to stay in touch?" Edwin asked.
"Sure why not, let me give you my number.." Jasiri said as both of them added each other's numbers on their phones
They talk to each other for five more minutes until they both got off at the Jackson stop. Once there, they said goodbye to each other while each go their separate ways home. Edwin goes through a pathway that connects the stop to the Blue line train while Jasiri just went upstairs to head for a nearby bus stop for her route home.
Author's Note: Hello readers, I hope that you have enjoyed the first seven chapters of this fanfic, I decide to write this chapter completely in third person to show the work lives of some of the other employees of the museum. Make sure to stay in tune for later chapters.