Starting Position

Chapter 13

"Which animals am I bringing?"

It was very early Saturday morning. The sun was just starting to settle across the town, lifting the heavy fog away from all its nooks and crannies. Erikson was sitting behind the front counter at the pet store, a large mug of strong, bitter coffee with swirling steam before his weathered face.

"As many as we can," Erikson said simply.

Today I was setting up the mobile adoption shop at the very populated Cascadia Lake. While the sun was succeeding in sweeping away the leftover dewy morning, it was still quite cold outside, and I wasn't too keen on standing still in the freezing air.

"You brought a coat, right?" Erikson asked, as if I had been shivering on the spot. I nodded. It was tucked away in my car, along with countless other contraptions and tools Erikson had handed me this morning. All were to be used to set up a small enclosure at the Lake and place animals inside. I had the feeling it was going to quickly turn to mayhem.

"I don't think I have room for many animals in my car," I said, sounding inept, and feeling even more so.

Erikson chuckled deeply. "I'm going to bring them by in my van. Don't worry."

An hour later, I found myself piecing together the links of a rather shabby pen, which was an enclosure to be used for housing the dogs and puppies. The kittens were to be held in a separate pen, while the cats were going to be brought in their own crates. Erikson had brought along some of the reptiles and amphibians that could make do without their lamps, and even a few birds.

Erikson arrived in his outdated, stark white van just as I had finished assembling the pen for the kittens. He swung open the side door to showcase a plethora of animals running, barking, chirping, and hissing about. Some morning walkers on the gravel trail supplied him with curious glances and hurried onwards. It was official, we were the traveling animal circus.

One by one, Erikson and I brought out the animals, some excited to be stepping into the outside world, others not so much. Many minutes and buckets of sweat later, we had successfully placed each animal into its correct place: the furry animals in pens and crates, while the others were sheltered in their respective containers off to the side. Looking around, I was proud of our work. Though, I did notice something missing, which I immediately brought to Erikson's attention.

"Did you forget Mr. Shelton?"

Erikson's eyes twinkled, and he then placed his hands on his hips. "No." I waited for him to continue, but no words ever came. I decided it must have been because Mr. Shelton needed his light and put the turtle out of my mind. In all honesty, I was relieved he wasn't here. It would cause me much despair to return to the pet store no longer housing him.

"So," I drawled, "What now?"

Erikson swept over to the side of our noisy and animated adoption shop and swooped down to pick up a narrow camping chair. He was surprisingly spry for someone as old and unwieldy as he was. With a quick thwap he had flipped open the chair, and like magic, it sat near the edge. He motioned for me to take a seat while he quickly set up the other chair.

"Now we wait."

As the morning wore on, the sun rose higher into the sky, bathing us in warm light. As soon as a cloud or tree blocked our source of heat, the chill of the lingering winter months showed its true colors, and I was glad to have brought my jacket. Because it was such a nice morning, many people were strolling along the gravel pathways, our pet shop either drawing them over like a bug to light or repelling them like a magnet. Many of the so-called bugs were children, some of whom had successfully cheered, wept, or a did a combination of the two in order to convince their parents. So far, we had adopted out one puppy, two kittens, a black cat, and – to a teenage boy whose mother looked horrorstruck – a snake.