Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Koala Killer Fifth Installment


Chapter 2

No one took any note of her going into Stan's room. His head was slumped over. The eye that had been pierced by the dart was covered in bandage. His bed was in an upright position and the bed's tray table with his untouched breakfast in front of him. She assumed he'd fallen asleep.

"Stan?"

She touched his shoulder and his whole body slumped toward her and she shrieked. She ran out into the hallway and shouted, "Please help me!"

The nurse came, then the doctors. When she asked if he was allright they asked her if she was family and when she told them she wasn't they sent her out into the hall. She sensed that he had died. When she saw the police coming down the hall she decided to leave. She hadn't seen anything that could help them and she really felt she needed to gt home as soon as possible for her own sanity, Needless to say, she didn't get her ticket validated, but she was more than willing to pay to get out of there.

"Oh, poor Stan," she thought. She didn't know him well. Just that her was an excellent veterinarian. She'd admired the way he could handle all types of animals. But he didn't have an outgoing personality. And he certainly wasn't subject to idle chitchat. The girls in the office called him a loner. He is, or she corrected herself, was, attractive, so they all flirted with him without any apparent effect. Her friend Shirley, who used to work there in the office, told her he was single. She had no idea how Shirley had known that.

When she got home, Owen did his joy dance. No matter how long you're gone, your dog always acts like you have returned from years away at war and, thank the gods, have finally made it safely back. She turned the cooler from fan to cool. She heated up some zucchini casserole in the microwave. She tried not to think about Stan. She turned on CBS'news at noon. They were covering a fire that had broken out in Sidewinder Canyon in the Rimrock Mountains. They hoped it would be under control that day, the newscaster said.

"The poor wildlife," she chattered to Owen, "the bobcat, the deer, the javelina, the birds and bunnies, oooh."

Owen could tell she was sad and came up to lick her knee.

It just added to her mounting depression. She gave Owen a slice of zucchini with some of the mushroom soup on it and set her timer for a short nap. As she started to turn the TV off with the remote, she realized they were talking about Stan's death.

"Stan Reed, Pueblo Valley Zoo's veterinarian, was attacked last night in the zoo's infirmary and died today in County hospital. Police are withholding the cause of death pending further investigation. More at eleven."

"Attacked and died," a tragic and painful event reduced to one sentence and read with a smile by a beautiful woman posing for the camera.

Mari zapped the TV off and closed her eyes. But rest, let alone quiet thought, was not to be. The phone rang, her answering machine clicked on. It as her neighbor, Bea, "Mari, did you see the TV? The zoo where you work?, the veterinarian guy, they said he died. You don't have to pick up, honey, I just wanted you to know what they said on the TV."

No sooner had she hung up than the phone clicked again. She got back up to turn the volume all the way down. Most of the time she didn't like using the telephone at all. She was the last of her friends and family to hold out against owning a cell phone. Then the alarm she'd set went off. She knew she had little time before she was due back at the zoo. She abandoned the nap attempt and hopped in the shower.