by Ruby Loren
I decided to keep my judgements to myself. Who was I to know what went on behind closed doors in this man’s family? Unfortunately, the irate relative wasn’t so silent with his own views.
“What are you, a tourist? Come to read all about my father's funeral have you, tourist?” he said, moving towards me aggressively.
As I didn’t have size on my side in any confrontational situation, I did the only thing I could.
I shocked him.
“Actually, I saw your father fall from the sky. I work for L’airelle Zoological Park.”
His mouth opened and shut for a moment. I could tell he couldn’t figure out the correct emotional response and I didn’t want to give him time to get it right.
“Au revoir, Monsieur,” I said, brushing past him into the boulangerie. To my relief, he didn’t follow. A moment or two later, he stalked off in the direction of the convenience store - probably to yell at some more people.
“I see you met Nicholas,” the baker said, parcelling up my daily baguette. “Unfortunately, he takes after his father. You can tell by the temper. His sister is better. She is more her mother, but sadly, she is not strong enough to stand up to the others. Still, perhaps now she will do it, no?”
He picked up a chocolate studded croissant and put it in a paper bag, before handing it to me with the baguette. “Here. A little something for standing up to that bully. It’s time someone did.”
I was pleased to bump into Adele on my way back to the cottage. She was taking another day off at home with Jolie.
“She looks ready to burst!” Adele confided when I asked her how Jolie was. “Honestly, I can’t thank you enough for convincing me to go to the vet. If I hadn’t, we’d probably be starving poor old Jolie right now, thinking she was getting porkier by the day.” She shook her head.
Adele brushed her hair back from her face and her expression grew thoughtful. “Are you coming to the funeral? You must have seen the posters around town.”
“I met the man who put them up, too,” I said and briefly explained what had transpired between me and Nicholas Devereux.
“Sounds like you handled it well. I’ve seen Luna spin around and walk the opposite way when she used to see him around the village. He believed every word his father spouted. When he’s not angry, he’s pleasant enough. But that temper!” She shivered a little. “It scares me.”
“I don’t think I should go to the funeral. I didn’t know him,” I said, but then realised I may be attending anyway. “Lowell knew him, so maybe I will after all.”
Adele nodded. “You were there when it happened and you provided comfort to Madame Devereux. I know she’d want you to come.”
She seemed to dither for a moment instead of continuing on her way. “There’s something I need to tell you. I have to get it off my chest. I just don't know if I should have told the police…”
“What is it?” I asked, curiosity immediately piqued.
“It’s about the day when Pascal gave me that parking ticket. We argued, but once I’d calmed down and accepted that the old bat wasn’t going to bend, he started trying to chat to me about Luna. He was asking questions about how she’d been and what she was up to at the moment. I thought he was either being a creep, or he was planning to start up his stupid vendetta again. I told him to forget it. I wasn't going to tell him anything but… do you think I should have said something about it? I didn’t want to mention it in front of Luna in case it freaked her out. She's put up with enough of his nonsense already and I’ll be damned if she still has to deal with it after his death!”
“I can’t see how it would affect the case. No one thinks Luna had anything to do with it,” I reassured her. I didn’t count Mr Flannigan, who seemed convinced we were all guilty of something.
Adele nodded. “Thank you, you’ve put my mind at rest. Well, I hope you have a good day! Perhaps Alcide will come over for the cup of coffee Luna told me she’d offered him,” Adele said with a twinkle in her eye.
I was willing to bet Luna had rushed right over to Adele’s house after work to discuss the details of the encounter. Their friendship reminded me of mine and Tiff’s. I missed her a lot, I realised.
My phone buzzed right on cue. I looked down at a whole new bunch of Lucky pictures. He was still having a whale of time with Tiff’s collection of animals. I hoped it wouldn't be too long before I’d be able to take him on my travels with me again. I hated missing him grow up.
“See you soon,” I said, both to Lucky and Tiff.
* * *
“It’s happening! It’s happening!” Luna ran around the corner of the orang-utan enclosure, waving her phone. I’d been deep in conversation with Alcide discussing the best ways to challenge the intellects of the apes when she arrived.
“The puppies! Jolie’s just started having contractions,” she explained, so excited she didn’t even think to be bashful in front of Alcide.
“Where’s Justin? Does he know?” I asked.
Luna nodded. “Yeah, he’s already running home. Monsieur Quebec said it was fine, as long as you were okay with taking over his duties for now. You don’t mind, right?” she said, struck with a sudden case of doubt.
“It’s fine. It’ll be nice to be a keeper again,” I said.
I turned back to Alcide and threw him an apologetic smile. “We’ll have to have this discussion another day. For what it’s worth, I think L'airelle is lucky to have you as their head primate keeper.
“Definitely,” Luna agreed and it took all of my self control to not laugh at her strength of agreement.
“All right, you’d better show me a few of the ropes so I can be keeper for the day,” I said, nodding goodbye to Alcide.
“Hey, how’s Matti doing after the painting incident?” I asked while we were walking across to the big cat area of the zoo.
“He’s fine. He sleeps all day on my couch. Adele or Justin have my spare keys, so they go in a couple of times and let him out to go to the bathroom. No one’s tried to use him as a canvas since,” she said.
I was glad that nothing further had happened to the dog.
“Oh, I forgot to say! The order of live spiders you wanted arrived today. How about we go and dump them in the Pallas’s cat’s enclosure and see if they like them?” Luna asked, brightly. “They’re really big and black.” She shuddered. “There’s a reason why I chose cats, not critters, to look after.”
We popped by the food store and grabbed the delivery box before making our way to the cats’ enclosure. Luna and I walked in through the gate, knowing that the cats themselves were both notoriously shy and mostly nocturnal. I hoped that this might give them an excuse to do a little hunting in the daytime.
“Here we go!” Luna said tilting the box away from us and upending it. A sea of black poured out of the box, running across the grass as fast as their eight legs could carry them.
I was rather shocked by how many of them there were. “I hope the cats decide they like them, otherwise they might be evicted from their caves!”
Luna grimaced. “We’d better keep quiet about this experiment until we know it’s a success.” She shot me a grin. “At least this enclosure won’t have a fly problem anymore!”
All the big cats had issues with flies due to their carnivorous diets. It was a constant worry to zookeepers that the animals in their care might pick up all sorts of fly-borne diseases.
“Okay, so I think I’ve briefed you on everything. If you handle the tigers, the ocelots, and the servals, I’ll stick with the lions, the leopards and panthers, and the Pallas’s cats. I’ve also got to do a guided tour later today, but give me a shout if you need anything,” Luna said.
“No worries,” I told her, secretly excited to be working as a zookeeper for larger animals than I’d ever personally dealt with before.
During my last couple of jobs, I’d spent plenty of time with keepers who looked after animals like tigers, and I thought I knew the kind of work that went into it and the precautions that
needed to be taken. I’d even experienced firsthand what happened when you abandoned common sense and went for a wander through a lion pride's territory. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to repeat.
As Justin had already done the morning feeds, I was left to go round and check the enclosures for any maintenance that might need doing. It was also a great opportunity for me to personally put together and test out some of my animal engagement ideas. Adele and I had ordered some large, hard rubber balls, filled with holes. One hole was larger than the rest and the idea was that whatever was put inside the ball would only fall out through this hole. What to put inside of the balls had been the topic of much debate. Today, I wanted to test out one idea.
The tigers at the zoo had a good diet. They were fed carcasses, rather than prepared meat. This not only gave them an activity to do, it also helped them to maintain their health. However, the internal organs were not always given with the meat and I thought that was a shame. It was grisly, but I was planning to stuff the rubber ball with some offal - hearts, kidneys, livers. They were all great ways to enrich the tigers’ diets.
Once I’d prepared the ball, the next step was to get it into the enclosure. Keepers usually fed the tigers by placing the food in a penned off area and then letting the tigers in to eat. There were several different penned off spaces within enclosures, so that keepers would never be foiled by a tiger hanging around in a pen that had been left open from an earlier feed. The tigers also usually liked to drag carcasses deeper into the enclosure, often up onto the wooden platform, where they could feed and fight over it in peace.
As well as seeking to engage the big cats, my ideas were also intended to benefit the visitors. So, instead of placing the ball in the usual feeding zone, I decided to take a walk up to aerial viewing pathway. A few visitors watched me curiously, and I was glad the zoo had insisted that I wear the L’airelle uniform from the start. Otherwise, people may have been a little perturbed to see a person carrying a giant rubber ball stuffed with organs.
The visitors watched with interest when I flung the ball with all my might over the side of the enclosure. The tough rubber bounced, but as luck would have it, it hadn’t turned the right way in order to dispense any of the gory goods inside. It wasn’t long before a tiger came running over to investigate, followed by his two brothers. The visitors began to point and take photos as the tigers patted the ball around and brawled over who got the opportunity to try their luck at persuading the unyielding rubber to give up its contents. Interestingly, it was the smallest tiger of the three who gained the most rewards. He seemed to understand that the ball needed to be pushed along in order to get something to fall out of it. His brothers preferred to bite at the rubber, which - to my relief - defied their strong jaws.
I grinned and left them to play as more visitors flocked, drawn by the excitement happening in the tiger enclosure. I glanced at the time on my phone and thought I could probably make up a few more of the balls before lunchtime. I knew that chasing a ball around wasn’t akin to a real life hunt - something which was very definitely prohibited - but it gave the cats something to do. They had to exercise problem solving skills and stop lazing around on their wooden podium in order to get a tasty treat. It was definitely a step in the right direction.
I hoped it wouldn’t just be the largest cats who benefitted. The Pallas’s cats already had their spider experiment, but there were smaller rubber balls for the ocelots and servals. I was planning to treat them to a bit of offal, too - albeit chopped into smaller pieces. Fish was another thing that could be a great and unusual treat for the cats, but that would have to wait for a cooler day. Even though the weather hadn’t looked bright for several days, it was still too warm for fresh fish to be left lying around.
I was on my way back to the food store when I saw Constantine walking towards me. She looked like she had murder on her mind.
“Going for a nice stroll?" she said, despite the fact that she was doing the same thing herself.
“I’m on my way to the food store. I’m working as a big cat keeper for the day,” I told her.
Constantine threw me a doubtful look. “That doesn’t sound right to me.”
“Feel free to bring it up with Mr Quebec. He was the one who okayed it,” I said, feeling my temper start to fray.
She bristled. “Well, aren't you a know it all! Anyone can call themselves a consultant. I don’t know why Francois would employ someone who is so obviously a quack.”
I raised my eyebrows, surprised that she’d had the guts to say it. I thought about suggesting that she and ‘Francois’ get a room, if they were as involved as she clearly imagined they were.
Instead, I took the high road. “That’s it. I’ve had enough of you insulting me and others with the idea that you’re better than everyone else at the zoo. You have no right to do that.” I inwardly allowed myself some grim satisfaction over my next words. “I’m going to see Monsieur Quebec about this right now. You are welcome to come with me. I think it's the only way to reach a proper solution.”
I thought Constantine’s permanently angry expression wobbled a little but she soon steadied herself.
“Fine,” she snapped.
Off we went to speak to Monsieur Quebec about one of the most petty and nonsensical things I'd ever experienced. I hoped he would take the same view I did and also not blame me for the inevitable waste of time.
Ten minutes later, we were both sat in front of the manager’s desk. There was a stale smell in the office that reminded me of school, and the occasion didn’t help much either. I tried not to giggle as I compared the situation to two naughty children being sent to the head teacher because they’d got into a fight in the playground. Unfortunately, I would need to show composure if I were to be taken seriously.
“What seems to be the problem?” Monsieur Quebec asked, looking at us over his horn-rimmed glasses.
Constantine dived straight in. “I have constantly witnessed Madame Amos wasting time and doing nothing that resembles work in the slightest. She spends her day fraternising with Madame Nice and Madame Fleur instead of doing the job you are paying her to do. She is wasting the zoo’s resources. I hate to see you taken advantage of in such a horrible and shameless way.”
I thought her eyes even misted over a bit with emotion. It took all of my self control to not roll my eyes.
Monsieur Quebec looked at me expectantly.
I spread my hands over the arms of my chair. “I haven’t been at L’airelle Zoological Park for long, but during that time, I have been impressed with the courtesy, kindness, and quality of the staff you employ. Constantine is the unfortunate exception. I am not usually one to tell tales, or even escalate something so petty, but in this case I had to make an exception. Constantine is a bully who does everything she can to criticise the work of her colleagues. I believe she works in catering?”
Mr Quebec nodded.
“And yet, she seems to spend most of her time wandering around the zoo, threatening people. I find it unfortunate that she believes me to have not been working, but she is mistaken. A lot of observation is necessary in order to correctly identify areas that can be improved upon. I also believe she might have made a mistake today, being unaware that I am currently acting as a big cat keeper,” I allowed, figuring I’d cut the tyrant a little slack.
Constantine shook her head. “I know what I’ve been seeing. They’re having too much fun to be working.”
I shot a disbelieving look at Monsieur Quebec, who looked like he’d aged another ten years during the conversation.
“How is your work going, Madame Amos?” he enquired.
I happily filled him in on the progress that had been made. The only part I neglected to share was that of the spider invasion Luna and I had unleashed that morning.
He nodded when I’d finished. “That sounds very promising. I’m looking forward to receiving your final report. Thank you for stepping in at such late notice to help out with a staff shortage. I do a
ppreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, trying not to look smug.
Constantine looked like she was sucking on a lemon.
“I’m sure you are right, Madame Amos, when you said that this was all just a misunderstanding. Thank you both for bringing it to my attention. I hope we are all on the same page now,” he tactfully said.
“I'm sure we are,” I agreed, smiling sweetly across at the other woman.
“Excellent. I hope both of you have a productive rest of the day,” Monsieur Quebec finished, with just a hint of grit in his voice. I knew it was a warning of what would happen if he were bothered by something so trivial again. In spite of that, I thought it had been worth it. Even more so when we exited the office and Constantine stormed off in the opposite direction without a word.
Nathan walked over to me, brushing his dark comma of hair back from his forehead. “What did you do to her?” he asked, half in awe.
“We had a disagreement, so I did the sensible thing and brought it under the jurisdiction of Monsieur Quebec,” I explained. “It's all sorted now.”
“You called her bluff! That’s brilliant!” He grinned.
I threw him a subtle smile. “In my experience, that’s the only way to deal with people like her. You can fight her face to face as much as you like, but it will never make a difference. You have to appeal to the only thing she respects - authority.” I pushed my wildly waving hair back from my face. “Despite everything she says about reporting to Monsieur Quebec, I don't think she’s ever done it. Perhaps take her claims with a big grain of salt in future,” I said. While I didn't think Constantine would take me on again after today’s warning, I doubted she would be changing her spots anytime soon.
“I can’t wait to tell everyone what you did,” Nathan told me with a smile and I knew the gossip would be all over the zoo in no time at all. I wondered if I should feel sorry for the deeply unpopular Constantine, but until she changed her ways, she was never going to find friendship. Perhaps if I were a permanent employee at the zoo, I would have worked harder to find a way to get beneath all of her bitterness and find out what made her behave so obnoxiously. But I was only here for a few weeks. The most I could do was to stop her from wasting any more of my time, which I hoped I’d achieved with today's intervention.