Friday, July 1, 2011

Chapter 6: Aggravation

Nora marched ahead of Tristan, clenching her fists at her sides. She was mentally counting to one-hundred and reminding herself to breathe deeply. She tried not to make eye contact with any of the customers, because she knew that her anger would somehow propel itself onto them.

When Nora reached the entrance to the zoo, she turned around to face Tristan. To her surprise, he was about ten feet away from her, jogging to keep up. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. “Our of shape?” she asked sardonically as Tristan reached her. The young man bent over and placed his hands on his knees, panting hard.

“You’re…a really…fast walker…” Tristan said between breaths. Nora smirked.
“You have to be a fast walker around here.” she said, trying not to sound too pleased with herself. She waited for Tristan to catch his breath before she spoke again.

“Okay, the boss must think you’ve got a really good personality,” Nora paused and sighed, “so he’s made you a tour guide. Which, if you actually liked the park, would be a good thing for me. However, since you’re trying to get me laid-off, it’s not really a plus.” Nora finished, turning around to look at the entrance of the zoo.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Tristan said, holding up his hands. “I’m not trying to get you laid-off, I’m just--”

“Trying to get people to not come, therefore making the park loose money, therefore leading to lay-offs, therefore putting my position in jeopardy.” Nora finished, turning around to face Tristan again. Tristan stared at her for a moment, a little surprised, while she stared at him with an eyebrow raised accusingly. Finally, he spoke.

“Well…if that’s what you think.” he said with a shrug. Nora sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.

“Come on. You have to come on a few tours with me to see how it’s done before you can do your own, so for the next week or so you’re just going to be my shadow. You will be seen but not heard, understood?” Nora said, leading Tristan towards the entrance.

“Yes, ma’am!” Tristan said, saluting Nora. Nora replied by rolling her eyes again.

When the pair got to the entrance, they found a tour group already waiting for them. Nora smiled and clapped her hands once and everyone turned to her.

“I’m so sorry for the wait, everyone!” Nora said, managing to sound truly sorry. She stepped to the side and motioned towards Tristan. “This is our new trainee, Tristan. He’s going to be following as part of the tour to see how it goes before he begins giving his own tours.” Nora explained. Tristan stared at the group, looking very grumpy. Nora sent him a glare before she turned to the crowd.

“I also regret to inform you that my headset is on the fritz, so I’m just going to have to talk louder so you all can hear me. If at any time you can’t hear me or don’t know what I said, just let me know and I’ll try to talk louder. That being said, anyone hard of hearing needs to come to the front.” Nora finished with a smile as she eyed an elderly couple towards the back of the group. The tourists laughed as the older couple made their way towards the front, large smiles on their faces. Nora waited for everyone to get together before she turned and led the group into the zoo.

“Would it kill you to smile?” Nora hissed to Tristan as they began walking.

“Yes, I think it would. I think that if I use the muscles in my mouth to form my lips into an upward facing shape, I just might die.” Tristan replied dryly. Nora glared at him before she began smiling again, ready to begin introducing the fish in the large aquariums.

The tour went much better than Nora had thought it would. Tristan remained quiet and observant throughout the entire tour, and all of the customers seemed to enjoy the animals. Once again, the highlight of the tour was the blanket octopus. Tristan even seemed surprised by it.

“There’s nothing in that tank.” Tristan whispered to Nora when they reached the blanket octopus.

“Really? Are you sure?” Nora asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. There is no octopus in that tank.” Tristan hissed, sounding annoyed. Nora tried to hide a smile.

“Well, why don’t you go and get a closer look?” she asked, motioning towards the glass wall. Tristan sighed and took a few steps forward. Suddenly, the blanket octopus shot upward. The group watching gasped, including Tristan. Nora tried hard not to laugh. Tristan turned around to look at her and his mouth was wide open in shock. Nora also noticed that there was something different in his eyes, something she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t hate or anger or annoyance… But she couldn’t quite tell what it was…

Once the group entered the gift shop, Tristan turned to Nora. “Okay, the octopus was pretty cool.” he said quickly. Nora smiled.

“I had a feeling that you would like it.” she said softly.

“Yeah…but I still don’t like this park. An animal like that deserves to be out in the wild.” Tristan said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Nora muttered, sighing. She glanced down at her watch for a moment then looked up at Tristan.

“Okay, we have to head back towards the front of the zoo now.” she said, stepping forward.

“Why? We have, like, twenty minutes until the next tour starts.” Tristan said, looking at the clock above the cash register.

“Yeah, but guests begin assembling before then. Tour guides are always early. Punctuality is something that customers count on.” Nora explained as she and Tristan walked towards the door.

“So, you really let the customers down this morning, huh?” he said. Nora thought about rolling her eyes again, but there was something different about his voice this time… His voice was less hateful and more…teasing… Instead of glaring, Nora actually smiled a little.

“Yes, and you’ll notice that I promptly apologized for it.” she said, glancing up at Tristan. Tristan nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“How many things do you have to apologize for in a day?” he asked absentmindedly. Nora watched Tristan as she replied.

“Usually not a lot, but some days--” Nora stopped abruptly as the electronic doors to the gift shop opened. She swallowed hard as she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

No comments:

Post a Comment