Sleeping With The Fishes

Chapter 14

By the time Jason dropped me off at home, with a quick pit-stop to the pharmacy to grab a compression wrap for my wrist–I was completely and totally exhausted. I moved the three birds to the back stables, promising them that I would be back in the morning, but that I didn’t want them to be exposed to the predators we had here on the coast. They weren’t used to avoiding them, and it was too dangerous for them to fly free at night.

I made my way to my room, expecting to be able to just fall into my bed and sleep. Instead, I found an angry Bee, surrounded by the Bee-hive, all of whom were giving me death glares. I supposed they weren’t happy with their living arrangements for the evening.

“Not now Bee, please. I’m exhausted,” I begged as I changed into my pajamas.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are my feelings inconvenient for you? I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, my entire existence seems to have become inconvenient for you. Or, our entire existences, I should say. We’ve been trapped here for hours.

I sighed. “I’m sorry Bee. You have the run of the house again. But I had three birds in here earlier. They were smuggled to this country, and I needed to get information from them to help get the giraffe out back home. Because the kittens are so young, I didn’t know how they’d react to three birds in the house, so I put you in here for a few hours.”

“This is my home!”

“They saved my life, Bee. I had to take care of them.”

“I saved your life! Twice, if I remember right.”

“You did, and I thank you for that.”

“And you still let the dog come and live in here.”

“Yes, Sprinkles is Sophie’s dog. If she lives here, so does he. Anyway, we’re not talking about Sprinkles. I’m sorry I kept you in here for a few hours. But I swear, you can have the run of the house now. I’m going to bed.”

“Oh yes, of course. Sleep well,” Bee muttered, and I couldn’t help but detect a little bit of mischief in those words. Still, I was much too tired to really care about what Bee had planned at that point, and I just climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, my sleep was restless. Between the cats deciding to play zoomies down the hallway all night, and nightmares about being shot at in a car, I found myself tossing and turning and constantly waking up. At one point I was pretty sure one of the kittens began kneading my face, but I only had a vague, groggy memory of it, and it might have simply been a dream.

What I did know was that when my alarm went off the next morning I felt like I hadn’t slept a wink. I groaned and jabbed at the snooze button, and a sharp pain radiated through my arm as I remembered my injury from the day before. Great. Today was not starting off wonderfully.

I forced myself out of bed and found Bee patiently sitting on the counter above her food bowl. “Why hello there, Angela. What a beautiful day it is today, don’t you think?”

“Yes, it’s just lovely,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at her. I wasn’t going to let Bee know that she had won and succeeded in ruining my sleep; the knowledge of her victory would only make her stronger.

“How did you sleep?” she asked.

“Fine,” I replied as I opened up some food and poured it into her bowl. The kittens were probably about a week away from being able to start eating solids themselves. “How about you?”

“Oh, I slept pretty well. The kittens had a bit of fun early this morning, I’m surprised you didn’t hear them.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t. I slept like a baby,” I replied with a smile as Bee began to eat her breakfast. “Now, I have to get to work. Are you and the kittens going to behave today?”

“No promises,” Bee grumbled, and I hid a smile. I figured my fake cheery attitude was getting to her. I made my way to the vet clinic with Sophie, who went out and got coffees for the two of us while I got settled and ready for the day. My first appointment was with a dog I knew well, Koby, a black lab who was about six years old. Luckily it was a slow day; I had a few appointment slots that hadn’t been filled yet.

“Here,” Sophie told me, handing me the coffee when she got back. “I asked Betty to make it a double shot for you.”

“Thank you,” I said, shooting my best friend a thankful look. “Did the cats keep you up all night too?”

“Not too badly. I heard them zooming around the hallway at one point, but that was it. I think you got it a lot worse.”

I groaned. “Your brain accepts adventure so much better than mine. I spent all of last night having nightmares about shotguns and car chases, and here you are acting like absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Sophie grinned. “It’s because when we were kids you were always too scared to do anything fun with me.”

“I still don’t think going on the biggest roller coaster at Six Flags would be that fun.”

“See? That’s why you get scared, you didn’t train your body to be scared enough when you were a kid.”

“I’m pretty sure most reputable psychologists would tell you that’s not how the brain works,” I said, closing my eyes and savoring the sweet, sweet taste of caffeine on my tongue. Ok, I was well aware that coffee actually had quite a bitter taste. But just then, it was like nectar of the gods to me. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through today without copious amounts of caffeine.

Thirty minutes later Karen was at her desk and Sophie was helping me with Koby the lab, who was extremely excited about getting to stand on the table.

“He’s not allowed on the table at home, obviously, so I guess he likes to get it all out of his system here,” his owner Kara told me with a smile. Tall, blonde and athletic, Kara was dressed from head-to-toe in workout gear and looked like she planned on going for a hike straight after this visit.

“Well that’s all right, you’re absolutely allowed on the table here,” I told Koby, whose tail wagged even faster as I spoke to him.

“It’s so exciting! Everything is so high from up here! Is this what humans see?” he asked, obviously having a ball. I smiled at the little cutie.

“So what seems to be the problem today?” I asked. “He’s not due for his shots for another four months.”

“No, but I think he might have a bit of an ear infection, or something like that.”

“Ok,” I nodded, looking at his ears. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, he’s been tilting his head a lot more than usual, and shaking himself a lot. Plus it kind of smells funky down there right now.”

I took a whiff and quickly moved my head back. “Yeah, you’re not kidding,” I said, and Kara laughed.

“Sorry.”

I waved off her apology and looked at Koby. “Hey little guy? Is your ear feeling a bit painful lately?”

“You know, now that you mention it, it has!” Koby replied. “Yes, it has been feeling uncomfortable, and sometimes it hurts.”

“Good boy,” I said, giving his body a good pet. “Now, let’s have a look at you.”

A quick physical exam proved that yes, Koby did in fact have an ear infection. Fifteen minutes later Kara and Koby were out the door, the former with a bottle of antibiotics, the latter with so much energy I imagined he was going to need to go on at least a three hour hike before he’d be even remotely tired out.

“That little dog’s a cutie, hey?” Sophie asked with a smile as we watched them leave.

“He is, for sure. So much energy for a dog who’s well into adulthood.”

“How was your wrist during that?” Sophie asked.

“Better than I expected it to be, actually,” I replied. I opened and closed my hand a few times and felt no pain. “I don’t think it’s as bad as it seemed yesterday.”

“Good,” Sophie said. “The sooner you get your magic abilities back, the better.”

“They probably would have come in pretty handy yesterday,” I admitted. “Still, I’m hopeful.”

Before we had a chance to keep talking, our next appointment of the day walked in, a cat named Sequins.

Three hours later we finally got a break, and I felt like I was going to pass out. What had started as a slow day on the schedule turned out to be pretty hectic: on top of the regular scheduled appointments we had one emergency allergic reaction, who was given a Benadryl and looked over for a couple of hours, a broken leg from an elderly dog who was a little bit too enthusiastic about jumping off his owners’ bed that morning, and one lab who had gotten into something he shouldn’t have and needed his stomach pumped.

By the time twelve thirty rolled around I had already missed the first half hour of my lunch break, but at least there was a break–a real break this time–in appointments and I didn’t need to be back at the clinic for an hour, barring some kind of other emergency.

“Do you want me to go get you another coffee and some lunch?” Sophie asked, and I shook my head.

“Thanks, but I think I need to get out of here. If I don’t stretch my legs or something I’m going to pass out,” I said with a smile.

“Cool. I have to run to the bank, I’ll be back in a little bit.”