„You look like you do this since forever."
_-_-_-_-_
Daniel Ricciardo is 35 years old and his life change in few seconds. It was his best drive since he left Red Bull but it end up with accident and now he had to left Formula one world.
His parents...
"Do you want to be by my side as I rediscover my love for animals?"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~•~
Daniel ended up staying with his father the entire day. He was surprised by how much work a zookeeper had. They started repairing the tiger enclosure at seven in the morning, and by eight in the evening, they were not even halfway done, despite having an extra person helping. Perhaps this was because everyone was distracted by Daniel, spending more time showing him how to do things and explaining everything to him rather than getting the job done efficiently. Daniel hadn't asked for this, knowing he wouldn't stay with them, so the information was essentially pointless to him, but they insisted on telling and explaining everything.
At eight, he was finally allowed to say goodbye and go home to rest because the next day he would be back with the animals, and he needed his strength for that. His father knew very well how much the keepers at the zoo sacrificed. Most of them struggled to maintain a normal personal life because most of their lives revolved around the animals they worked with - they were with them all day and constantly near the phone in case they were called from the zoo that something had happened. His wife was not a keeper, but as the head veterinarian, she was in a similar situation.
He was exhausted. Daniel felt every bone in his body. Every muscle, even those he had no idea existed. He felt muscles he hadn't felt even during his intense training days in Formula One. He realized how incredible he had been to endure such strain without getting out of breath and without subsequent pain. Not only was he aging, but his knee made everything more difficult, making him feel like a retiree. He couldn't even spend the whole day carrying iron and wooden poles; how could he call himself a former athlete? It had only been four months since the accident, and he already had no strength - he would need to start exercising lightly again. Lightly, so he didn't ruin his leg even more than it already was.
He walked slowly, dragging his body behind his head, which led the way. He was glad he could keep his body weight on his legs. His injured knee was shaking, and the brunette felt like his face would soon touch the ground beneath his feet. He felt like he would soon kiss the asphalt and not care, because the only thing he would care about was that he was finally lying down, and his legs didn't have to bear his entire weight.
His eyelids were heavy, and he couldn't wait to get home and collapse on the couch, put on a movie, and fall asleep to it. He didn't have the strength to climb the stairs to the second floor to lie in his bed, so he would have to settle for the couch, which, fortunately, was more comfortable than it looked.
"Sushi, that's mine!" he heard a voice exclaim. Maybe he was tired and his mind wasn't working at full capacity, but he knew very well whose voice it was, and from the name the voice called out, he knew which animal it was. That surprised him the most, because the place he was passing through was on the opposite side from the tigers and far from the main gate, so his legs must have led him here automatically.
