Chapter 27: Sprouts

Tristan arrived at the diving instructor’s shack twenty minutes early. The little building was located right on the edge of a marina. Most of the people who frequented the marina were rich tourists and locals. Because of this rich atmosphere, Tristan looked oddly out of place with his common demeanor.

Tristan walked into the shack and spoke to the instructor, Ron, for a while before he rented some equipment for himself and Nora. Tristan had taken lessons before, so he remembered what to get and how to get it. He waited impatiently for the next few minutes. Then, he began to pace. Then, he walked around outside the shack, waiting nervously for Nora.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Nora’s car appeared in the driveway of the marina. Tristan tried not to look too excited as he ducked back into the building. He took a few deep breaths, checked his hair in the glass window, then turned around, pretending to look at a diving mask with great interest. The little bell above the door of the shop rang and Nora entered, breathing heavily. She walked over to Tristan to see what he was looking at.

“Oh, hi,” Tristan said, smiling casually.

“Hey,” Nora began as she returned his smile. “So, is that a good mask?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, it’s great--”

“You figured that out in the five seconds you were looking at it?” Nora asked, glancing up at Tristan slyly. Tristan blushed.

“Well…it’s…it’s all in the brand name, you know…” Tristan mumbled. Nora giggled. Just then, Ron walked over to the two of them and clapped his hands down on their shoulders.

“You must be Nora! Pleased to meet you!” Ron exclaimed, reaching out a hand to Nora. Nora was surprised to hear that he spoke with an Australian accent. She shook his hand and smiled pleasantly. “Tristan here has told me a lot about you!”

“All good, I hope.” Nora said with a small laugh. Ron stopped shaking her hand and a light frown came over his face.

“Actually, no. But it’s all worked out for good, eh?” he said, chuckling. Nora laughed nervously, not accustomed to such an exuberant person. She supposed that he had to be this way to keep people coming back to his shop.

“Yeah, I guess it has…” Nora said softly. Ron, Nora, and Tristan all stood there silently for a moment, staring at each other awkwardly. Just then, Ron clapped his hands loudly. Nora and Tristan jumped.

“Well! Let’s get started! Shall we?” Ron said, turning around and heading out the door. Nora and Tristan lingered behind for a moment.

“He’s a seasoned instructor, right?” Nora asked nervously. Tristan nodded.

“I’ve been told he’s good.” He replied softly. Nora thought for a moment.

“The people who told you this were sober, right?” she asked, looking up at him. Tristan laughed. He took Nora’s hand and the two of them followed after Ron.

Ron led the two of them out to a boat which was nice, but definitely not as high-end as most of the other boats in the marina. The three of them crawled out into the boat and Ron started the engine.

“All right, we’re going to go out and get close to the reefs. Best place to learn how to dive is out there. Well, really, any place with deep water is a good place to learn to dive, but the reefs are one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, so we like to take people out there. It’s good for business.” Ron explained over the roar of the engine. Nora and Tristan glanced up at each other with bewildered expressions on their faces.

“How long will it take to get there?” Tristan asked, leaning forward towards Ron.

“Oh, not more than half an hour, I’d say.” Ron replied. “Sometimes when the weather’s choppy it takes longer, but today is a perfect day for being out on the water. The breeze is light and the waves are small—huh…I guess it’s not such a great day to be out here in a sail boat!” Ron laughed again and Tristan chuckled. He glanced back at Nora, who laughed awkwardly. Tristan sat down next to her again and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you okay?” Tristan asked, speaking as softly as he could while still being heard over the engine of the boat.

“Yeah…it’s just that the casual attitude of this guy is kind of freaking me out. I mean, I’m a little nervous about this whole thing, and he’s acting kind of…” Nora paused and glanced up at Ron to see if he was paying attention to them. He wasn’t. “Unprofessional.” Nora finished in a voice that Tristan could barely hear. His eyes flashed over to Ron, who seemed to be bouncing to the beat of the music in his head. Tristan turned back to Nora and nodded a little.

“He’s throwing me off a little, too. But I’ve gone diving before, so I’ll help you out if he doesn’t. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Tristan said, smiling. Nora sighed, still looking a little worried. Tristan took her hand gently but remained silent. He had a feeling that he couldn’t say anything else that would cheer her up or ease her fears. She just needed him to be there for her.

The three of them road in silence for a while. Ron bounced to the beat of his own drum while Nora and Tristan sat in the back, neither of them really thinking about anything in particular. Their thoughts drifted to and fro, going where the current willed them to go. Tristan didn’t let go of Nora’s hand, and she didn’t make any motion to pull it away. They sat there, completely content with just being with each other.

Finally, Ron turned to them. “We’re almost there!” he called over the sound of the engine and the wind in their ears. “I’m gonna slow her down so that it’s not such an abrupt stop when we get there!” he said.

“Okay!” Tristan blurted out the only response that came to mind for a comment like that. Nora took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her free hand. Tristan gave her an encouraging smile and she attempted to smile back. He could see she was nervous, though.

“It’s going to be fine…” Tristan said softly. Nora nodded but didn’t look him in the eyes. The boat slowly came to a stop and Ron turned off the engine. He stood up and turned around to face the couple.

“All right! Are you two ready to dive?” he asked, beaming. Tristan glanced over at Nora. This was where the hard part began.

“Are you ready?” Tristan asked gently. Nora swallowed hard and nodded, forcing herself not to look at the water.

“You said you’ve gone diving before, right?” she asked, looking over at him worriedly. Tristan nodded. Nora took a deep breath and squared up her shoulders. “Then I’m ready.” She said, sounding much more confident than she was. Ron smiled wide and rubbed his hands together.

“Then let’s get this party started!” he exclaimed happily. Ron turned around and Tristan smiled at Nora again.

“You’re going to do great.” Tristan said softly.

“If you say so…” Nora muttered, standing up. Tristan stood up with her, not letting go of her hand. He knew she needed him for moral support, but he didn’t realize how much she needed him until later…

Chapter 19: Reconciliation

David walked with Tristan back to the employee’s lounge. “Are you sure your mom isn’t going to worry about you?” Tristan asked.

“Nah,” David said with a shrug. “Like I said, she can shop for hours. And I kind of have this habit of wandering off… She’s learned not to worry about me.” David finished. Tristan laughed a little. He was starting to like this kid.

The two of them came to the door of the employee’s only lounge and Tristan frowned. He glanced down at David, and David glanced up at him. Tristan quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching before he opened the door and pushed David into the room. David stumbled forward as Tristan rushed in after him. Tristan closed the door as softly and quickly as he could.

“Um, you realize this is the employee’s only lounge, right?” Tristan spun around as he heard Nora speak. She was pointing down at David with a puzzled expression on her face. Tristan hurried over to David and stood behind the boy, placing his hands on David’s shoulders.

“Nora, this is my new friend David. He’s, um…lost.” Tristan said. David nodded convincingly. Nora gave the two of them a skeptical look. “I saw him sitting on a bench…crying. Yeah, he was crying.” Tristan said, making his story up as he went along. David looked up at Tristan, looking offended and confused. Tristan squeezed his shoulders and gave him a look, silently telling him to go with it. David quickly got the hint and turned around to face Nora. He began to sniffle and wipe at his eyes. Nora sighed and folded her arms over her chest, giving Tristan an exasperated look. “So, I asked him what was wrong and he said he had gotten separated from his mom, and I decided to bring him here to…ask you what was the best thing to do…I guess…” Tristan mumbled the last part more to himself. David let out a little sob and Nora rolled her eyes.

“Okay, what’s really going on?” she asked, giving Tristan a light glare.

“What do you mean? That was a true story…” Tristan replied slowly, not looking Nora in the eyes. Nora sighed heavily.

“Okay, fine, if that’s what you want to tell me then that’s what I’ll believe. For now.” Nora said, throwing her hands up in the air. Tristan smiled. “However, we have more tours today, so we’re going to have to contact the front desk about a lost boy--”

“No!” David suddenly exclaimed. Nora shot him a confused expression. “I mean… I wanna go on a tour…” he said softly. He remembered to sniffle a little as he looked up at Nora with pleading eyes. Nora stared at him for a moment before she moaned in defeat.

“Fine! He can come!” Nora said, sounding exasperated. She stomped past the two boys and went out the door, slamming it behind her. David pulled his fist down towards his hip and whispered the word “yes.” Tristan smiled and raised his hand up for a hi-five. David jumped up to reach Tristan’s hand and slapped his hand hard. The two boys turned and walked out of the room together, trying to be sneaky as they ran after Nora.

Nora led the two boys to the front of the zoo where a crowd was already gathering for the tour. They waited for about ten minutes before beginning the tour, just to make sure everyone was there who had signed up. Once Nora thought that most of the people were there, she began the tour.

“You guys do this every day?” David whispered to Tristan. The group had stopped in front of one of the fish tanks, and Nora had decided to stand a few feet away
from Tristan and David. Because of this, David thought it was perfectly fine to talk to Tristan about her.

“Yep.” Tristan replied, looking at all of the tourists.

“Wow. It must get really boring really fast.” David said quickly. Tristan shrugged.

“Not really. It’s a different group every time we do it, so it’s not that bad.”

“Huh… I guess that makes sense… Do you ever get to talk, though?” David glanced up at Tristan, squinting a bit.

“Sometimes…” Tristan replied slowly. “Well, I only got to talk for the morning tours one day… Then I got Nora all mad again and she hasn’t let me speak since. I think she’s afraid I’ll say something bad.” Tristan glanced down at David, who sighed and rolled his eyes.

“No duh! She has a brain, she knows your agenda, and you haven’t done a whole lot to gain her trust. You’ve bashed the park every time you’ve opened your mouth and you expect her to let you talk to a group of customers?” David said incredulously. Tristan recoiled in shock.

“Hey! I thought you were on my side!” he exclaimed, slightly offended.

“I am, but to help you, I have to hurt you.” David replied with a nod. Tristan stared at him for a moment, a baffled expression on his face.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” he said slowly. David patted his arm.

“It will in time, young grasshopper.” the boy said softly. Tristan continued to stare at him like he was crazy.

“As I was saying, you need to regain her trust.” David continued, coming back to his main point. “You need to keep your mouth shut when it comes to bad things about the park. You need to start saying good things about the park. Most importantly, though, you need to apologize to Nora.” David checked off the items while counting on his fingers how many there were.

“What? Apologize?” Tristan exclaimed loudly. A few of the guests in the near vicinity glanced over at him in confusion. Nora, however, didn’t seem to notice his sudden outburst.

“Yep. It’s the only way to go.” David said, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding with authority. Tristan sighed.

“Why? I mean, can’t I just buy her flowers or something?” he whined.

“If you write ‘I’m sorry for being a jerk’ on the card that goes with them.” David replied quickly. Tristan sent him a light glare. “I know that ‘sorry’ is the hardest word, but it’s the only word that will make your problems with her go away.” David said, placing a caring hand on Tristan’s arm again. “It’s the only thing that will break down the barrier she’s built against you. You have to remove the barrier before you can build a bridge.”

Tristan sighed. He knew that the kid was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. He put his hand over his face and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping he would open them again and have the problem magically fixed for him. However, when he opened his eyes, David was still looking up at him knowingly and Nora was still ignoring him.

“You’ve gotta do it, Tristan.” David implored him.

“Can’t I just tell myself to stop liking her?” Tristan asked, staring at Nora sadly.

“No! You can’t deny true love! Don’t you know that you can die from a broken heart?” David hissed.

“Maybe I can just quit, move away, and forget about her… Find a girl that doesn’t hate me…” Tristan mused to himself. David smacked his arm.

“Ow!” Tristan exclaimed, rubbing his arm and glaring down at David.

“I will not tolerate that attitude, mister!” David growled, wagging a finger at Tristan. “You like her, and you are not going to roll over in defeat just because you have to apologize to her. Real men don’t do that! Real men go after what they want!” David cried, his voice getting louder. Tristan shushed him as people began to stare at them. David sighed and began speaking quietly. “Tristan, you’re like a dog--”

“Gee, thanks…” Tristan muttered, rolling his eyes.

“And Nora is like the bone that is buried in some other dog’s yard. You have to fight against that other dog to get to the bone. Unfortunately, the other dog is inside your own mind. It’s that little voice that’s telling you to not apologize. You have to fight that little voice to get what you want. It won’t be easy, but I know you can do it. You might have to work up to it. Start with just saying nice things to Nora and not saying bad things about the park. Maybe drop in a nice word or two about the park, too. Then you can work up to apologizing.” David explained. Tristan listened closely, amazed at the pearls of wisdom this boy carried. He nodded slowly, understanding what the boy was saying.

Nora began moving the group to the next part of the zoo, catching both of the boys’ attention. “Come on,” David said, turning towards the group. “We have to get up to the front so that you can start making friends with Nora.” he finished, taking Tristan’s hand a pulling him along. Tristan sighed and followed him.

And now began the process of reconciliation… Tristan was not looking forward to it.

Chapter 11: Normality

After a few days off, Nora was more than ready to go back to work. In fact, her days off had been even more stressful than her job because of all of the reporters that followed her around. Nora decided that the most annoying of the bunch were the local newspaper reporters. They didn’t have video cameras, so they were constantly snapping pictures with one hand while managing to write with the other. At least, that’s how it seemed to her.

Tristan had had a very similar experience, but to a greater extent. Because of the attempted robbery on his apartment, he got even more publicity than Nora. He was hailed as a hero twice, which meant that he had twice as many reporters following him. At least, that’s how it seemed to him.

When Nora and Tristan finally returned to work, they found the park to be as busy as ever. The police had done a very good job reassuring people that the park was completely safe, so families had resumed their vacations. Nora and Tristan went right back to their jobs as tour guides.

“Whoa! What happened to you?” Nora asked Tristan when she met him in the employee’s lounge. She squinted at his face and he grimaced, trying to cover up his black eye.

“You didn’t watch the news?” he asked sheepishly.

“No, I turned it off after a day of hearing my own name. It was really annoying.” Nora said with a sigh. She walked over to her locker to put away her lunch bag.

“Well, I ran some errands one morning then went back to my apartment and got beat up.” Tristan said with a shrug. Nora spun around to face him.

“Seriously? Someone beat you up in your apartment?” she said, stunned.

“Well, I was totally exhausted, and someone knocked at my door, so I opened it…” Tristan recounted the entire experience to Nora and she stared at him, her mouth hanging open. When he reached the end of his story, she scowled and shook her head.

“Of all the dumb things to do, that’s probably the dumbest.” she muttered. “Trying to kill a guy who just saved the lives of a whole bunch of people…morons…” Nora continued to mumble angrily as Tristan stared at her quizzically.

“I don’t think I really saved anyone’s life…” he said softly, glancing down at his shoes. Nora remained silent for a moment before she turned around to look at Tristan again. Her eyes were suddenly very soft, and she looked very fragile. For a moment, Tristan thought she might cry.

“You…you saved my life…” she said in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper. Tristan and Nora stared at each other for a minute before they both looked away awkwardly. Tristan cleared his throat and rubbed he back of his neck. Nora tried to ignore the fact that she was blushing.

Once they had both composed themselves, the pair walked out to greet their first tour group. Much to Nora’s surprise, the group was twice as large as it usually was.

“Whoa! We have a lot of people on the tour today!” Nora said with a wide grin.

“You two are the ones who stopped the robbery, right?” someone called out from the group. Nora tried to find the person who had spoke, but she had no luck.

“Um, yes…” she said slowly.

“Well, no wonder there are a lot of us here! You two are practically famous!” the voice cried out. Nora felt a bit of panic rise up inside of her heart.

“Not really. We were just doing our jobs.” Nora said quickly. She really didn’t want to talk about or answer any questions about that day. She just wanted to put it behind her and move on with her life.

“If you say so…” the voice said, sounding a little disappointed. Nora let out a relieved sigh before she smiled and began the tour.

Tristan walked along quietly, wondering how long he would have to tag along with Nora before he began his own tours. Suddenly, he remembered why he took this job in the first place. It wasn’t to make money or give people tours; it was to learn more about the park so that he could find something bad to protest about it. Tristan glanced over at Nora as she told people about the angelfish in the aquarium next to her.

He decided that after all they had been through, it was going to be a little bit more difficult to protest the park…

Chapter 5: Changes

Tristan was standing by the entrance of the park, his arms crossed over his chest. He was trying to look very grumpy as he waited for Nora to meet him. He was hoping that by looking as unpleasant as possible, he’d be able to scare away potential customers. Unfortunately, his plan wasn’t working. He was just getting a lot of strange looks from the tourists.

“Don’t eat the food! It’s poisoned!” Tristan hissed to a couple that was walking past. The gatekeeper turned to give Tristan a quick glare. Tristan flashed him a fake smile before he turned to a family that was walking through.

“Be careful! The sharks are known to eat little kids!” Tristan whispered to the two small children in the family. The little girl looked at Tristan like he was insane and the little boy stuck his tongue out before his mother pulled him away. Tristan frowned at them as they walked into the park.

Just then, a bright blue shirt--the uniform of the park employees--caught his eye. He glanced over at the gatekeeper, wondering if he had called security, before he turned his gaze back to the blue shirt. He smiled as he realized it was Nora walking towards him with a very unhappy expression on her face. She smiled and said “good morning” to the tourists as they passed her, but each time she saw Tristan, her glare returned.

“Nora! It’s so good to see you on such a nice morning!” Tristan said happily, turning up his annoying factor.

“Yes, it’s lovely. Or at least, it was before I remembered that you met my boss yesterday and made a good enough impression that you actually got a job.” Nora said quickly. Tristan beamed with pride.

“And my mother said that I wouldn’t amount to anything…” Tristan sighed, looking off into the distance. Nora stared at him for a moment when a baffled look on her face. She shook her head and sighed heavily.

“Just…come with me, okay?” she said, grabbing his wrist. Tristan let out a yelp of surprise as Nora dragged him along behind her. She led him to the park’s welcome center and brought him through a door that said “Employees Only.”

Tristan looked around the room with a little bit of awe building inside his heart. It wasn’t a big room, and it wasn’t very showy, but he’d never actually been into an “Employees Only” room that wasn’t at a fast food restaurant. Needless to say, this room was much better than all of those.

There were lockers all along two of the walls, and there were wall lights above some of the lockers. The lockers were the same color as Nora’s shirt, and the walls were a light sage green. There were overhead track lights that illuminated the entire room. In the center of the room was a large wood table with chairs all around it. There was a counter on the wall to Tristan’s left, with a coffee maker, microwave, and sink. There were cupboards above and beneath the counter, all of them made out of dark wood.

Nora glanced over at Tristan as he looked around the room. “Do you like it?” she asked, snapping him out of his trance.

“Oh, yeah, I guess…” he said with a shrug. Nora rolled her eyes, but there was a light smile playing on her lips. She walked over to one of the lockers and motioned for Tristan to follow her. He meandered over and stood next to her, his hands in his pockets.

“Okay, this is your locker.” Nora said, opening the locker up. She handed Tristan a piece of paper. “Here’s the combination…” she said as he took the paper from her hands. “And it works just like a school locker. I can’t imagine you’ve been out of school long enough to forget how to use a locker, so I’m not going to explain that to you.” Nora said quickly. Tristan scoffed.

“Well, thanks for giving me that much credit…” he mumbled. Nora ignored him.

“You can keep your clothes and any other belongings in here during the day then pick them up at the end of your shift.” she continued, stepping out of the way so that Tristan could look inside the locker.

“So, is lunch provided?” he asked, peering into the locker. It wasn’t very wide, and it was only a half-locker, but he really didn’t need that much space.

“If you bring money to buy something from one of the restaurants or venders here.” Nora replied from the other side of the room. Tristan turned around to look at her just in time to get a shirt thrown in his face. He pulled it away from his face and gave Nora a quizzical look.

“That’s your uniform. You apparently weren’t informed that employees are supposed to wear khaki pants, not khaki shorts.” Nora said with a sigh.

“Hey, at least I’ve got the khaki part down.” Tristan said with a shrug. Nora rolled her eyes.

“Just get changed in there--” Nora said, pointing to the door on the wall to Tristan’s right. “And meet me in outside the welcome center when you’re done, okay?” Nora finished quickly.

“Okay, okay…” Tristan muttered, taking his shirt into the other room. He closed the door and smiled as he heard Nora let out a heavy sigh. He was going to make her life miserable.


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Tristan walked out of the welcome center and saw Nora talking with a happy couple. He smiled as he approached them. This was going to be fun.

“Yes, but I’m going to guess that the Water Spout isn’t going to be your cup of tea,” Nora said with a friendly smile. The couple laughed.

“No, I think that would be a little too twisted for my stomach to handle.” the other girl said with a giggle.

“You have a sensitive stomach? I would suggest not going to any of the restaurants here, then.” Tristan said, butting into the conversation. The couple looked at him with confused expressions while Nora stared at him in shock. “Yeah, a LOT of cases of food poisoning come from these restaurants, and don’t even get me started on the vendors!” Tristan said with a small laugh. Nora’s mouth fell open as the tourists exchanged worried glances.

“There are also some pretty intense attractions in here, like the dolphins at five. Pretty scary--” Tristan was suddenly cut off when Nora elbowed him in the ribs.

“I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse him. He’s a compulsive liar. He just can’t control himself.” Nora said quickly. The two tourists looked at her skeptically. Nora nodded convincingly and their skeptical looks began to slowly fade away.

“I am not a compulsive liar!” Tristan gasped, clutching his stomach where Nora had elbowed him.

“Don’t listen to a word he says, just go enjoy your time here.” Nora said quickly. She smiled then began pushing the couple away from Tristan. Tristan glared at her as she walked away.

Nora turned around and stormed towards Tristan, a look of hatred in her eyes. “Listen, Tristan, here’s how the game is going to be played: if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. If you behave yourself and speak civilly, then I’ll do the same.” Nora said patiently. “However, if you are mean to me, I will be mean to you. If you misbehave and don’t speak civilly, then I’ll do the same.” she finished, getting as close to Tristan’s face as she could. She had to stand on her tiptoes in order to do this, and even then she was still a good two or three inches from his face.

“Do you understand these conditions?” Nora asked, sounding much more threatening than Tristan had ever thought possible.

“Um…yes…” Tristan said slowly. He and Nora stared at each other for a moment longer before Nora flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned to walk off.

“All right, follow me. I’ll show you what your new job is all about.” Nora said briskly. She walked away quickly and Tristan sighed. This might be harder than he had originally thought…