Thursday, August 6, 2009

Koala Killer Seventh Installment


In the employee's parking lot she put her trusty '84 Chevy pickup next to a truck that made hers look like a toy. A new one-ton 4x4 done up in camouflage, with huge off-road tires. Her brother Andrew had been into this kind of thing for a while when he was in high school. Actually, it'd been his friend Billy who was the true aficionado. Billy was now into monster truck shows, while Andrew drove a family van. Mari wondered who of her fellow employees drove this beast.

The staff was abuzz over what had happened to Stan. She just wanted to forget it for a while. Luckily most of them didn't know she'd been the one to find Stan. And as far as she knew, no one knew she'd been to the hospital and found him dead. SHe supposed she should tell that detective, Jack Palance look alike, what was his name? Oh yeah, Wilson, Lieutenant Wilson.

First things first though, she had to get the bird's feedings prepared and out for them. She got down to work cutting up oranges and apples in the kitchen. Glad to be working, doing what she loved. She hauled the Aviary's seed buckets and fruit first, then loaded the trolley for the birds of prey. She dipped the hummers' sweet water from the cooled kettle and poured it into the feeders that had been run through the washer. The fun part for her was interacting with the birds as she feeds them. She was especially fond of the crows and the hummingbirds.

Alvin, the crow, acknowledged her approach by cawing his usual greeting to her. He only used that particular combination of caws and squawky squeals when she comes into his enclosure. He wasn't just anticipating the feeding, as she'd first thought, since he also used the same sounds when she came to see him at non-feeding times. She'd done her own little study when she'd first had his care. She'd sat out of sight and listened to him for several hours at a time and discovered that he had a different set of sounds for each person he knew. She returned what she took to be his "Hi Mari" with her own version of a crtow greting that she'd heard crows in the wild use. Alvin elaborated, but like a foreigner who doesn't speak the language, she remained mute wishing she could say more. She reverted to her own language.

"Here we are then, Alvin. Fresh out of road kill again today. I've told the cook, but you know how she is."
Alvin flew up to her and sat on her hat, picking at the crown. She was used to this now, but she was certainly startled the first time he'd done it. He had wanted the ornament that was pinned on her hat (strictly against regulations). Like all crows he collected shiny objects. Sometimes, when she remembered, she'd put a large paper clip on her hat for him, but today she was distracted. She longed for life to get back to normal, but knew it wasn't going to happen any time soon.
After the feedings had been distributed, she went to what she called her office. It was a tiny closet-like storeroom off one of the landscaping department's sheds. She had placed a piece of glass on a small built-in wooden table and used it to make her reports on the animals that are required of the keepers. She perched on a rickety three-legged stool. As a rule, she was extremely comfortable here. Today, she felt uneasy.
First of all, she thought things had been moved. Not that there was much there. She kept a jar of pencils and pens, a steno pad for to-do lists, whiteout, and a folder of blank report forms. The steno pad seemed to have moved from the left to the right side of the table.
"Oh well," she thought, "mayube I put it there myself."
Then she thought she could smell a man's cologne. Ah, probably one of the landscapers looked in to see if something he neede was stored in here. She chided herself that this whole thing was making her paranoid. She made quick work of the report and started back toward Admin to drop off the paperwork.
A quick movement caught her eye. Someone ducked out of view behind the mower.
She called out, "Who's there?"
No answer.
She walked toward the mower and saw a blur of a zoo worker's uniform high-tailing it down the public walkway toward the Australia and Africa sections. What was left behind was a whiff of that same cologne. He or she had been heavyset from what she could see of their departure. They could certainly move quickly. She concluded that someone had been watching her.