My alarm blares in my ear at 6:30 in the morning. Looking out my window, I see the dark gray clouds and the lightning in the distance, and I know today will be a long day. After sitting for 10 minutes on the edge of the bed, I eventually get up and get ready for the day. Stumbling into my bathroom, I get in the shower, still half asleep. Fifteen minutes later, I shut off the shower, wrap myself in a towel, and walk over to my closet, digging to find my uniform for cleaning day consisting of old khakis and a dark blue polo. If you saw someone wearing a dark blue shirt within the zoo, it normally means that they are part of maintenance or a keeper, while everyone else wears sky blue.
On top of the other three keepers, the maintenance crew consists of triplets Dave, Josh, and Vince, and Alec, the newest addition. The triplets have been working at the zoo for the past 20 years, while Alec just started last month. Besides Alec, who is still learning the ropes, the triplets are great at their job, and they all show enthusiasm and passion about what they're doing. It's quite a refreshing sight to see people other than the on-site vet, nutritionist, and I enjoy our jobs, even if it has bad days. Dave works on the plumbing, Vince takes care of the habitats and contract work with Dave's help, and Josh maintains the landscape. Alec, poor, poor, Alec, gets to help all three of them, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It is pretty funny to see him run from one side of the park to the other carrying a handful of pipes to Dave one minute, then covered in dirt from Josh the next.
The two that I work with are Jake and Tyler. Tyler is a junior this year, while Jake and I are seniors, set to graduate in three weeks, and we'll both start at University this next fall. Both Tyler and Jake are pretty nice but can be complete idiots at times. One time, Tyler was giving the Crowned Lemurs their supper and left the door open. Luckily, they were contained in the Employees Only area behind the enclosures, but it took all three of us and the triplets to get all five back into their enclosure, and two of them have a nasty biting habit. We are a pretty small zoo, with more open, park-like areas than animals, but it's still a nice change to have in a city filled with buildings and roads, and I enjoy it all the same. Glancing at my clock,7:10 glows back as I tug on my clothes, pull my tangled, wet brown hair into a ponytail and rush out the door.
I run to the zoo arriving just in time, not only for my shift but just as the rain starts to come down. Walking into the main building toward the break room, I wave to the triplets as they get their rain gear out of their lockers and clock in. Grabbing one of the extra umbrellas by the door, I head out into the storm toward the keeper area. On the walk over, I keep thinking back to the two guys in the park last night and how could I not; they took over my dream. Everything I told Skylar about my sixth sense was true, but it wasn't the whole story. I left out the dreams. If I had told him about those, I don't think he would have believed me as easily as he did.
Only my family and Mia know about this "gift" and I guess Skylar now too, but no one knows about the dreams. Mia and I have been best friends since we were 4. She helped and supported me immediately after finding out. She has seen every slap to the face in those bad situations and the bear hugs in the good situations. She is truly my best friend and like the sister I never had. When Skylar was asking about their meeting last night, I didn't tell him that she practically dragged me along because of this "gift", though they had that covered. I didn't help or need to but she insisted anyway, what was I gonna do, say no?
The dreams, though, are the weirdest part. It's not apparent at first, but it becomes one of those things that I can't shake for a couple of days, and it's always the same situation. The dreams will always come the night the meeting has occurred; almost all of them are meetings I have had a hand in. The dream starts in a room looking at a dresser with two picture frames on top. The two people in question are in the frames separate from each other. Then it goes to black, and a puzzle is being put together, piece by piece, an image starts to come together and, from previous experiences, the image that forms is one that I will see with my own eyes, the couple holding hands or hugging or some image of them together. According to the dream I had last night, the guys looked happy, relieved even. Not until Tyler almost bashes my face in with the door do I realize I had reached the keeper building.
"Hey Lily, you ok?" he asks.
"Huh...oh, yeah, just thinking," I say, half out of it.
"Ok, if you're sure," he starts to walk inside. Stopping and turning around, he mumbles, "H-hey L-Lily do you think that y-you could..."
"Yes, I'll take care of the Lemurs." I smile, shaking my head. "I asked Amelia to make the primate house on my rotation after the Lemur escapade."
He lets out a big sigh, "Thank the Threads. I don't think I could do that again and not make the same mistake," he leans in slightly and lowers his voice to a whisper, "And between you and I, Jake can be a little dumb sometimes, so he might have done it too."
He straightens and smiles at me, then turns and walks inside. The moment the door closes, I bend at the waist, trying so hard not to laugh. Those two always think they are smarter than each other, the vet, Mike, and the nutritionist, Krista, and I have been keeping track of how many times the two say or imply that they are smarter than each other. So far, Jake is at 42, and now Tyler is at 21 times. After the Lemurs, Jake didn't let it go for at least two weeks. Regaining my composure, I fold down the umbrella and step inside. I grab my keys and walkie, put on my galoshes, and grab an extra pair of rubber gloves; I'm about ready to head over to the Wellness building for the animals' breakfast (again, after the Lemurs, that got divided between Mike, Krista, and I) when Amelia catches me.
"Lily, really quick before you go. Administration told me that next week we have an inspection, so you will need to be here by about 7 to help get ready and make sure everything is in order."
"Got it, anything else?"
"Nope, that's it."
"Ok. Oh, I need to take my lunch break at 11:30 today; I have plans," I say.
"Whatever, just as long as you tell the other two and are back on time, I don't care," she says, walking back toward her office, attention already somewhere else.
Grabbing the umbrella from the wall, I step into the now drizzle and head over to meet with Mike and Krista to give the animals their breakfast before the park opens at 9.
After giving everybody their breakfast, and either almost or actually being clawed or bitten by half of the animals, the rain had finally stopped. The park has now been open for 2 hours and as I mentioned before, Saturdays are always the busiest. I have been radioed over to help at some enclosure three times in the first 45 minutes of being open and stopped nine times by park-goers for questions while going from one place to another. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but Saturdays can run on a little. However, that being said, holding onto Lenny the Sloth while Vince secures his branch is pretty cool. Just as I'm locking the door for the enclosure, my radio crackles to life for the 4th time.
"Jake to Lily, the ticket booth is out of admission bracelets. If you are near the supplies building, can you drop some off before heading to lunch, over," he crackles.
"Yep, both are on my way back, so I'll stop by," I sigh.
"Thanks, and have a good lunch. Jake, over and out," I chuckle as the radio goes quiet again.
Since he started here, we have told him that he doesn't have to say the call signs so formally, as long as he addresses who he's talking to first, but he insists on doing it. Making my way back, I grab the smaller stack of bracelets, knowing that the two in the booth just didn't look hard enough. Those two are the other students whose parents influenced their position, Bridget and Amy. It's probably a good thing that they are stuck in the ticket booth as both of them are lazy and completely helpless. They can barely run the booth, let alone something that might require them to get up and move. I doubt they would even know how to hold an animal, let alone feed or keep one clean. They will both be juniors along with Tyler, and I honestly don't understand how any of them have survived this long. Walking into the ticket booth near the entrance, my point is proven. Both girls are on their phones as a couple walks up to the window. Instead of getting their attention, I just decided to help the couple. Giving them their bracelets, they walk away, and I turn on Amy and Bridget.
"I brought the extra bracelets, but for the 7th time, there are always extras in the closet back here," I say, opening the cabinet and grabbing one of the stacks of extra bracelets and placing it on the counter.
"Yea, yea, quit the nagging," Bridget moans, waving me off, eyes not moving from the screen.
"Hey Bridge, look at this," Amy says, completely ignoring me.
With that, I leave before I strangle both of them. Granted, they can be nice to someone other than each other when they want to, but that only occurs once in a blue moon. I head back to the main break room and clock out for lunch, then head to the cafe a few blocks away to meet Mia and most likely Skylar.
****
(cont. in part 2)
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