Little Sinclair (Moonlight Tales Presents)

Leaving the Pet Store

Friday mornings weren't so bad.

In fact, they were the best part of the day at the pet store. Breakfast came in early as did the garbage collectors, rosy cheeked kids snuck delicious snacks through the bars of whatever cage they could find, noise shifted from the main shelter to the aquarium, and the cleaning lady always put up a show with her mop and bucket.

Sinclair carefully shuffled toward the edge of his little cage to peer at the white mop, leaving a fat wet trail as the cleaner dragged it to and fro. Her name was Emilia, but everyone just called her E. He innocently thought it sounded more like a squeal than a nickname, and that it was one of the reasons why she hated her job so much. He could tell that she did from how she grumbled and mumbled on repeat each time she mopped. On several occasions, he had overheard her calling Fitzpatrick – the pet store owner – râleur. He had never heard such a word in all his life; he was not even sure what it meant, but felt certain it translated to something unpleasant and ugly because E scowled at her boss whenever she said the word.

As he stared at the gliding mop, he wondered if she would purposefully ignore lifting the pigeons' cage again. There was a week's worth of poop around and underneath it. He had stepped in it himself once, and the pigeons – Rocky, Lou, and River – had asked him to do a moonwalk with it.

Suddenly, the squeaking wheels underneath the mop bucket took Sinclair's attention, and he immediately thought, uh-oh.

The plastic bucket was noiselessly sliding backwards on its wheels.

E had knocked it without realizing, and it was making a crazy beeline toward Evangeline's cage. Evangeline was one hell of a grumpy skunk –  the last one in the pet store – and she hated to be disturbed, especially when she was fast asleep.

All eyes veered to the sliding bucket.

"Stink bomb in 10 seconds!" Laurel, the duck, warned.

"Someone do something!" Comet squealed in panic. She was a koala, one of the lucky animals that was kept well away from weekly drama on ground level yet permitted the best view from high above.

"Quick! Toss Oliver this way." Ralph, the rattlesnake hissed.

"Can't leave the damn rat alone for one second, can ya, Ralph?" Fighter challenged. He was the fiercest rabbit anyone would ever come across and he balled fists at everybody, including Ralph.

Sinclair watched in horror as the mop bucket spun twice and slammed against Evangeline's cage, simultaneously rattling the bars and jerking her awake. A symphony of gasps and squeals filled the room for a split second as the skunk stirred and sat up, blinking repeatedly.

"Anyone with a brain here?" Evangeline grumbled and rose. "How many times do I have to tell you pipsqueaks not to rattle my cage when it's nap time? Who tossed the bucket?"

"It was E!" Oliver snitched in a squeaky mutter, speaking for the first time since. He hardly ever spoke because he was frightened of Ralph and did not want the snake to always look in his direction.

Evangeline shot Emilia a furious glare and began to stomp forward. "She's gonna understand there's worse days at the pet store than missing a paycheck."

At that moment, Emilia spun and found, quite surprisingly, that her mop bucket had gone all the way across the room. She spat something in French and began to walk to it.

"Don't go, E!" Smiley, a bunny, pleaded, dramatically clutching at the bars of the cage that he shared with six younger siblings.

"Abort mission, E! Abort, abort!" Rocky, Lou and River chorused.