Diving Into The Wreck

The World Has Turned And Left Me Here

"Those zookeepers in Tampa must have been idiots."

I was back in the dolphin exhibit, trying to get Kirk to eat a fish. Tommy was reorganizing the supply closet, his music blaring over the speakers. The exhibit was supposed to open in a week, but according to Claudia, the dolphins weren't acclimated to their new environment yet.

She blamed everything on the zoo in Tampa. They were the ones who had mistreated their animals so badly that they had lost their will to live. Once, Claudia said something about wanting to release them to the wild, but all three dolphins would die instantly. Having been born in captivity, they didn't have the basic skills that they needed to live in their natural environment. There was nothing that we could do for the dolphins, no matter how badly I wanted to truly help them.

"What did they do this time?" I asked Claudia as I waved a fish over Kirk's blowhole. He didn't seem to register its presence.

"They told us that the dolphins were all male. McCoy is actually a female. We should have figured it out earlier - she's the smallest out of the three dolphins."

"How did the zoo in Tampa not figure this out?"

"I told you. They're all idiots." Claudia shook her head and then walked over to me. "Kirk's not going to notice the fish is there unless you put it in front of him." She took the fish from me and leaned further forward until the fish was in front of Kirk's mouth. He finally snapped up and took the fish and then swam downwards until he was almost out of sight.

All of a sudden, Tommy emerged from the supply closet. "Claudia, I finished cleaning the closet," he said. "Should I clean up the garage behind the exhibit next?"

"Actually, I've been talking with the other zookeepers about what to do with the garage," Claudia said. "We were wondering if you two might like to have your own space in the zoo. You can share the garage, and you can do whatever you'd like with it. If we get new animals, we might convert it into an exhibit, but for now, nobody else is using the garage, so you can have it."

"I'd like that a lot, Claudia," I said. I was already daydreaming about what I could do with a space of my own in the zoo. Finally, I could have a place to study without getting interrupted, and I could move some of my extra D&D stuff into the garage to decorate. I had a lot of rulebooks and dice that were just sitting around in my room, waiting to be used in a game. At last, I could have a place where I belonged.

"Great," Claudia said. "Next time you're here, you can decorate the garage. For now, I'd like both of you to clean the water filter."

Both Tommy and I groaned, but we went over to the water filter and did what Claudia had asked us to do. Tommy bobbed his head up and down to the beat of the music, desperately trying to get himself through the drudgery of cleaning the water filter, while I daydreamed about my classes at Egmont and Dungeons and Dragons. Animal Behavior was interesting enough, especially since Aditi was in that class with me, but Florida Everglades: Ecology and Conservation was by far my favorite. I still spent most afternoons in Jonas' office, and every Friday night, I played D&D with a huge group in Greenway Hall. It was the kind of life that I would have killed for in high school, but it still felt like there was something missing.

For a long time, Tommy and I didn't speak to each other. It was for the best. There was nothing for us to talk about but painful memories that neither of us wanted to relive. The only sounds as we cleaned the water filter were water crashing onto the deck, McCoy's high-pitched chirps, and thoughts buzzing through my head.

We moved on to mopping the deck, and as we cleaned up the underwater viewing area, Tommy finally broke the silence. "The weather's been pretty nice lately, hasn't it?" he said.