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 13: Luck

Nora was up bright and early, making sure that she got to work on time. She was especially speedy today, because she was certain that she had spied a few news vans the night before. So, she left her apartment and got out on the road as sneakily as she could then drove herself to work.

Nora entered the employee’s lounge and began putting her lunchbox and purse into her locker. She looked at the mirror hanging on the locker door and put her hair up into a ponytail. She quickly pulled blush and a small brush out of her bag and puffed a little onto her face. She then applied a little lipstick before putting her purse away.

Just then, the door to the employee’s lounge burst open. Nora spun around, panic gripping her. Running through the door was none other than Tristan, looking very frazzled and frantic. He rushed over to his locker and threw the door open, shoving his lunchbox into it as fast as he could. Nora watched him with a puzzled, yet slightly amused, expression on her face. Tristan slammed the locker closed and leaned against it, panting heavily.

“Are you okay?” Nora asked slowly. Tristan glanced over at her and waited for a minute before answering.

“Yeah…just…late.” he said between pants. He cracked a grin and Nora raised an eyebrow. She glanced up at the clock to see that he was, indeed, late.

“This is your third day working here, Tristan.” Nora said, turning away from her locker and walking towards the door. “Why in the world were you late?”

“Well,” Tristan began, straightening up. “I slept through my alarm this morning, but I did everything extra fast to make up for it. But then I got into my car and it decided not to start, so I had to chase a bus for a block before it stopped for me, and then I had to run two blocks because the bus stop is two blocks away from here!” Tristan said quickly, but still panting. Nora smiled at him and laughed a little. Tristan stared at her quizzically.

“What’s so funny?” Tristan asked, walking over to Nora.

“I don’t know. I just think it’s funny that you had a hard time getting to work.” she replied with a shrug and another smile. Nora walked out the door and Tristan stood there for a moment, wondering if he should feel insulted or happy that she had laughed at his story…

That morning was a fairly normal morning. Nora and Tristan gave three tours before lunch, and Tristan was even allowed to do some of the talking. However, in the middle of the third tour, Nora stopped abruptly. The guests were looking at some of the fish, so they didn’t notice the confused expression on Nora’s face. Tristan, however, took notice of it immediately.

“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked, standing next to Nora with a look of concern on his face. Nora waited a moment before answering, studying the scene in front of her.

“Some of the angelfish are missing…” she murmured. Tristan gave her a puzzled look.

“What?” he asked, turning to look at the aquarium. Nora stood next to him, counting the fish in the tank.

“I’m sure there aren’t as many in there as there were yesterday…” Nora mumbled to herself. Tristan glanced down at her, wondering how she could notice something so insignificant as the number of fish in a tank.

“Maybe they were moved…?” Tristan suggested. He wasn’t sure how likely that idea was, but it didn’t hurt to put it out there. Nora shook her head.

“I don’t think they would just randomly move fish around…” she said slowly. The two of them stared at the aquarium for a moment longer before Nora shook her head and put on a smile, continuing on with the tour.

After their three morning tours, Nora and Tristan took a break for lunch. They took their lunchboxes to a round table that was sitting underneath a large shade tree. Nora sat one chair away from Tristan once they reached the table. Tristan wondered why she didn’t just sit next to him, but he shrugged the matter off and opened his lunch box.

The two of them ate in silence for a few moments, neither one focused on anything besides their lunches. Tristan chomped on his sandwich happily while Nora picked at a salad. Nora was the first to look up and speak.

“Do you know what I think would be a really fun job?” Nora asked, not expecting an answer. Tristan glanced up at her, a large bite of sandwich in his mouth.

“What?” he asked, even though his mouth was full.

“Being a diver.” Nora replied simply. She stared off past Tristan wistfully, leaning her chin on one hand while still poking her fork into her salad with the other.

“A diver?” Tristan repeated, his mouth still full of sandwich. Nora nodded.

“I think it would be fun to be able to go into the tanks with the animals and swim around with them in their natural habitat.” Nora continued, still not looking at Tristan.

“Natural? There’s nothing natural about their habitat here.” Tristan said, finally swallowing his food. Nora flicked her eyes towards Tristan as he spoke. “The plants are fake, the water isn’t salt water from the ocean, and the fish are all enclosed in tiny little boxes by glass and cement, both man-made materials.” Tristan finished and gave Nora a pointed look. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Okay, so it’s not their ‘natural habitat.’ I still think it would be cool to swim with them, though.” Nora said, slightly exasperated. Tristan thought for a moment then nodded.

“So, how does one become a diver?” he asked, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Well, you have to have experience and apply for a job as one, instead of having no experience at all and applying for a job as a tour guide…” Nora mumbled the last part more to herself than to Tristan.

“Wait--you’ve never gone diving before?” Tristan asked, shocked. Nora shook her head slowly. Tristan stared at her, his eyes wide with surprise. There was just something about Nora that made it impossible for him to believe that she had never gone diving before.

“I’ve always wanted to, but I can never find the time…” Nora said with a shrug.

“I think we’re going to have to make time for that.” Tristan said, nodding his head.

“We?” Nora asked, glancing up at him. Tristan stopped chewing his sandwich and looked up at Nora, realizing what he had said.

“Well, I mean, you and I could go diving together, or just you could go and I could help you pencil it in, or just I could go and you could help me pencil it in, or…” Nora giggled and Tristan stopped talking. She was looking at him with a teasing, but understanding, smile on her face.

“Do you always talk like this around girls?” she asked, a sparkle in her eyes. Tristan laughed nervously then looked down at his food, trying not to blush.

“Well, if you pencil it in, maybe we will go diving sometime.” Nora said softly. She began eating her salad again and Tristan felt his heart beat a little harder.

He suddenly felt like the luckiest man in the world.

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 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.

Chapter 2: Nora

Nora stormed forward, clenching her fists at her sides. Her day had been going very well, but everything was suddenly going very wrong.

The day had started normally. She woke up, had a bowl of cereal, got ready for work, and was out the door in an hour. The drive to work had been fairly easy, considering it was summer and the tourists were never very collected when they were behind the wheel. Today, however, Nora had not swerved for anyone, nor did she have to stomp hard on the breaks because a careless driver pulled out in front of her.

Once Nora had gotten to work, all of her coworkers had been very cordial and nice. She smiled and greeted all of the people she passed, and her smiles and greetings were returned. She had noticed that not all of her coworkers were “morning people,” so it was nice to see them opening up at an earlier hour.

She couldn’t blame them for being in a good mood, though. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, and the air smelled of freshly cut grass and saltwater (a strange combination, but one that Nora liked very much). It was the perfect day… Until about eight o’clock.

The gates to the park opened at eight each morning and closed at eight each night. It was a popular attraction year round, but in the summer, people flocked in. Today had been no different. As soon as the gates swung open, people swarmed in. They were organized into lines then let into the park once they had shown (or, in some cases, bought) their ticket. Then, they spread out in little packs, traveling this way and that through the park, looking at all of the attractions and animals. At that time in the morning, the most popular attraction was the zoo. And that was exactly where Nora’s problems began.

Nora’s job at the park was to give tours through the zoo. Her first tour started at 8:15 in the morning, and she always started exactly on time. She looked down at her watch and saw that there were minutes remaining before she had to begin her tour. She glanced up at the people waiting at the zoo entrance and noticed that there weren’t many people there. She had a list that contained almost twenty names… Nora frowned but shrugged the matter aside. If the others didn’t show up, that was their loss.

She walked forward towards the group of tourists and smiled. She had been giving tours for a year and she was well informed about all of the different creatures in the zoo. There had been only a handful of questions that she couldn’t answer, and those had all been in her first few weeks of giving tours. She was confident and outgoing by this point, but something seemed off today… She glanced down at her watch again and took a deep breath. Time to begin.

“Good morning, everyone!” Nora said over the noise. She had a headset with a microphone on it, but she never turned it on until the entire group was inside the zoo. “My name is Nora and I’ll be your tour guide this morning.” She smiled and began counting heads. “Is this all that we have for the tour today?” Nora asked, not expecting a response. The tourists looked around, trying to figure out how many of them were there for the tour. “Hm…” Nora mused to herself. She only had about half of the people that were on her list… “Well, I guess we’d better get started.” Nora said with a shrug. It was 8:15, and Nora was never late.

She began leading the group through the zoo, showing them the fish first. She loved to look at the fish in the aquariums and watch them dart around, looking for another fish to chase. After the fish came the aquatic mammals. There were manittees, dolphins, and a few small whales, as well as seals. The dolphins were a favorite among the crowds, and people especially liked it when divers went into the dolphin tank and swam around with the animals. Next, Nora led the group through a glass tunnel that was surrounded by water. There were sharks and stingrays on all sides. Nora always had a smirk on her face as she led people through this hallway, because someone always screamed. Sometimes, it was because a shark would pound against the glass, thinking it could get to a small child’s colorful hat. There were other instances where a stingray or two would follow the group all the way down the tunnel and watch them for a moment before swimming back in the other direction, and that always seemed to intrigue tourists. Nora then led the group through the section of the zoo that housed the penguins and two polar bears. Nora knew that the penguins were a crowd favorite because of their cuteness. She always had to stop for a couple of extra minutes so that the group could just watch the penguins swim and play. Finally, Nora would lead the group to the last exhibit…

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Nora said, her voice carrying through the large chamber. “The blanket octopus.” Nora beamed as she stared at a sheet of glass that spanned the entire wall. There was water on the other side of the glass, but it was clear and blue and empty. The tourists stared at it, puzzled.

“Must be a pretty tiny octopus…” One man muttered, walking closer to the glass. The tourists walked forward, peering into the water-filled chamber. Nora’s smile became more and more mischievous. They were all in for a surprise, just like any other group Nora had ever led.

Suddenly, the crowd gasped and recoiled. A brick red mass, looking much like a sheet being pulled through the water, shot up in front of the glass. The creature swam gracefully about, its long coattails rippling behind it.

“That’s an octopus?” one child asked incredulously. Nora walked forward and bent down next to him.

“Yep. It has tentacles like an octopus, but some of them are connected together by that red skin. That skin looks like a blanket being dragged through the water, so it’s called a blanket octopus.” Nora explained, trying to keep it simple enough for the child to understand.

“Oooh…” The boy said, nodding his head. He stared at the creature in silence for a moment. “It’s really pretty…” he breathed. Nora smiled.

“Yeah, it is…” Nora watched the octopus for a moment then straightened up. “Believe it or not, this is a female blanket octopus.”

“Whoa! The males must be huge!” a teenager exclaimed. Nora laughed.

“Actually, the male blanket octopi are much smaller than the females. They’re usually only a few centimeters in length, whereas the females can grow to be over two meters in length. Because this female was raised in captivity, she’s larger than most blanket octopi in the wild would become.” Nora explained. The teenager stared at her with his mouth hanging open.

“I thought that the guys were always bigger…” he said softly. Nora smiled kindly.

“That’s what most people think. The blanket octopus is an exception to that belief, though.” the teenager turned back to the glass and stared at the octopus. Nora let the entire group watch in awe as the octopus showed off its beautiful coat. Finally, though, it was time to move on. Nora led the group out to the gift shop, ending her first tour of the day.

And that’s where things went horribly wrong.