Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,4
and I don’t gotta learn math.”
Sprinkles must be the manatee, by the way Ava was holding the stuffed animal up and wriggling it around. She was certainly cute.
“Maybe go exploring where we can see you,” one of the women said, shaking her head. “That’s the rule, remember what happened last time?”
“Yester time I ran off to see some things,” Ava informed Micah. “But I got lost an’ cried until somebody found me.”
“Last time, not yester time,” her mom corrected. She smiled at Micah. “I hope she wasn’t bothering you! We told her that people that worked for the aquarium were good to talk to, but we meant, you know, maybe asking how to find her missing moms.”
“It’s okay,” Micah assured them both. “She wasn’t bothering me, not at all. I do this a lot.” Kids did like to wander around this place. Not that Micah could blame them; he’d been wandering around aquariums since he first went to one and realized it was a place that existed and that people actually worked there. He waved to Ava, who disappeared looking only mildly apologetic about vanishing.
“Hey there,” Micah said, looking into the tank after Ava and her moms went over to see the manatees. “Bonnie girl, you feeling okay today?” He held his hand up, and Bonnie swam over, using her fin to propel herself up and nudge his palm. He smiled. She was young, only about five years, and social with humans—having figured out pretty quick it got her a lot of fish. He’d miss her when she was ready to go back into the wild, but that was par for the course by now. She didn’t belong in an aquarium or a tuna net. But if she wasn’t released soon, she’d get too accustomed to the place and would be unable to fend for herself.
The dolphin chirped and swam off, and Micah consulted his tablet for his to-do list. He still couldn’t believe, even after all this time, that he worked here. Jobs like his were few and far between, and scoring his entry-level position seven years ago had been a dream come true. Thousands of hopeful applicants, and he knew that being a hometown boy hadn’t done anything to get him noticed, though the years he’d spent as a volunteer through high school and college had definitely helped when he’d applied for one of the few coveted paid positions. Now he was living his dream, head animal researcher for the rescue and rehab program, and every day he still pinched himself when he parked in his spot in the staff lot. It wasn’t often you got to live your childhood dream, and sure, maybe he’d given up some things, but it was totally worth it. People had been telling him for years that while there were plenty of jobs researching in his field, active animal care and work positions weren’t easy to come by.
Micah didn’t mind research, but his real passion was helping the animals recover from accidents and head back out where they belonged. While he hadn’t initially been sure he’d like the educational component, it turned out he had a real knack for engaging with the curious children—and curious adults—who came to visit the aquarium. The facility depended on the money these visitors paid for their entrance fees, their lunches and their stuffed manatees named Sprinkles. Micah found he preferred telling kids about the dangers of throwing plastic rings away more than writing research articles any day; he liked to think his tours were informative and enjoyable enough to pull a few annual donations out of visitors and season pass purchases out of locals. Which, he should probably read up on the tour he was going to have to give—there were some groups who would listen to him wax enthusiastic about new methods of humane tracking, and some who mostly wanted to know how much Dudley weighed and could they keep a dolphin in a bathtub?
Silver swam by and splashed Micah, barely missing the tablet. It was covered by a thick plastic waterproof slider, but he’d ruined more than one smartphone when his favorite dolphin was feeling playful.
“Not today, Satan,” Micah said to the dolphin, who seemed to be grinning at him. Micah laughed when Silver chirped and bobbed his head out of the water. He reached out and rubbed his hand over the slick skin. Silver had lost most of his dorsal fin in a boating incident when he was a calf, and while Micah