Aquarium(Frerard)

Part One

The colours are magnificent. There is a mixture, a swirl of blues and greens and yellows and every other colour you could imagine. It's like looking at a piece of art, the only difference being is that this canvas moves. The vibrant colours swirl and change, weave and swim and to this art, there's a soundtrack. There's a constant drill of children flailing and screaming, a thud of tiny hands banging against the glass and trying so hard to gain the attention of the creatures in front of them.

New Jersey's local aquarium holds many kinds of marine wildlife, ranging from the electric yellow tropical fish to the dull grey marble sharks. It opens its doors every morning at 8am sharp to stampedes of children with their parents, who have managed to secure a precious day from work, or the poor school teachers who have arranged a field trip. The centre closes a whole ten hours later, often with a sigh of relief from the staff. For the people who work at the aquarium, it's a challenge, and for Frank Iero, it's the most challenging thing in his life, to date.

Frank Iero is twenty four. He's been working at the aquarium for just over a year and it's been the longest year of Frank's life, he's sure. Of course, his job is the most rewarding and fulfilling job he could picture himself doing, but it's demanding. He often works ten hours straight with a half hour break in the middle but he doesn't complain because it's worth his time when he knows he's helped one of the sharks have an improved quality of life, as opposed to ending up in shark fin soup. He loves being in the centre, watching the marine life and seeing kids' faces when it's feeding time for the stingrays, when they slowly lower their hands to the water and as the creature starts to suck the food from their hands, the sheer look of excitement on their faces.

Difficult children and parents alike are a regular occurrence at the aquarium, and as parents are often too busy on their cells to watch their child play safely, the kids fill their time with banging on the glass, sticky smears and fingerprints on the glass that Frank's only just cleaned. It's days like this that Frank often asks himself why he decided to work at a family centre and didn't take the opportunity to travel to some magnificent barrier reef in the tropics. He's still not too sure why he didn't take the travelling option, the opportunity to see someplace other than New Jersey. He thinks it might be something to do with the actual getting to his destination, because as much as Frank loves all things sea life, his legs and stomach certainly do not.

Frank's mom had always wanted Frank to travel abroad to work as she claimed it would broaden his views on the world. Frank didn't really care about seeing much of the world really, only its animals. He often thought about taking an extended break and travelling on safari to see animals he only ever imagined he'd see in books, but the sharks and his department at work kept his feet firmly on the soil of New Jersey and the only time Frank went near the airport was to get to work on the highway. As well as having a slight phobia of boats Frank also hated airplanes. He just didn't understand them and claimed that if men were made to fly they would have been born with wings. Of course, he didn't really believe himself when he stated this, it was just his excuse so that he could stay right at home where he was comfortable and not have to face his irrational fears of boats and all things aviation.

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"No. No!" Frank hears somebody scream and a few hard thuds of somebody banging on the glass follows. It's just gone 9am and Frank already has a headache. All he wants from today is some peace and quiet, and maybe some ear plugs?

"Get me out! Mikey, I said no!" Frank listens carefully to the shouts coming from the end of his tunnel which holds the tiger sharks. Frank initially thinks it might be a kid thrashing itself against the glass and he really doesn't have time to be telling any children off right now because really, he hates to play the part of the annoying keeper but the marine life do not appreciate the vibrations from a child banging against their tanks. As he listens closer though, it's not what he thinks. Setting down his large net which he's using to scoop the bits of left over breakfast from the tanks, he wanders back out to the tunnel to see what the fuss is all about.