Distort the world into clarity

Chapter Seventeen: Troubled waters

This day was no different from all the other days. Beatrice woke up extremely tired, because many nights of not enough sleep were really kicking in now. She still ate her breakfast in the lounge and passed Lenny on her way to the kitchen.

"Goodmorning, Lenny."

When Lenny looked up, he glanced upon her with a face full of disgust. "Wow, you look terrible. You should be glad you're not working with the customers. The boss would kill you for looking like that."

"Yeah... I haven't been sleeping well."

Lenny's voice immediately softened. "Oh, sorry... Is your bed not to your liking? Or do you just not like the whole room? I can assign you another one if you want."

"It's not that." Beatrice didn't know what else to say. He couldn't really do anything about her late-night thoughts after all.

"Please tell me if there's something I can do, alright?"

Beatrice nodded.

"Well, you can always call in sick for a day if you need to. You can just relax for a day, enjoy the spa we have here, perhaps? That could be good for you. It's in my best interest to keep the employers happy and energized, so I'm giving you permission to take a day off. Anything you need." After that last part Lenny hastily added. "It's all for the best of the hotel, of course."

Beatrice grinned. "Everything for the hotel, of course."

"Yeah..." Lenny waved her away. He had to go back to work now.

Beatrice said her goodbyes and started walking towards the kitchen.

A tiny voice stopped her. "Bee, wait!"

With a confused look on her face, Beatrice turned around. To her great disappointment it was Viv the goldfish who had called her name.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Viv's voice sounded softer than it already usually was. It sounded fragile.

Beatrice almost felt sorry for her. Almost. "You said some really mean things about my friends. You don't even know them. I don't want to talk with judgemental people like you."

The clownfish opened her mouth a little in astonishment. She wasn't sure what to respond, so she simply shut her mouth again and turned her head to look at another direction.

Not that Beatrice cared, or at least that's what she told herself, but she did notice.

Even if she would've wanted to say something else, she couldn't. She was running late for work. Without giving it any further thought, Beatrice started fast-walking to her workplace.

She had learned how to manoeuvre her way through the masses of fish in front of her pretty quickly. Sometimes she simply ducked and walked underneath the floating fishes, sometimes she jumped over them and other times she just walked through them, if it was a school of small fishes at least. She never stepped aside for anyone. This method of walking in a straight line had proven to be quite effective, so she stuck to it.

Fortunately, Beatrice did arrive on time at the kitchen. She was greeted by Ria's booming voice.

"Bee, the canned pineapple, now!"

"On it!" Beatrice screamed back as loud as she could, but her attempt was futile. The sounds of the kitchen were simply too loud for Ria to hear her. But actions speak louder than words, so Beatrice manoeuvred to her corner and started with her daily task.

The can-opening had become quite a boring task, but Beatrice didn't want to complain. She knew that complaining wouldn't make anything better. She could lose her job or her chance for a promotion, so it's better to just do your job and get it all over with.