Red Volkswagen || h.s.

Afterglow

My fingers tap on the wheel as music plays on a low volume, and I begin to grow impatient. Three years kind of impatient.

So, sort of impulsively, I shut off the car and grab my phone and keys before hopping out and locking the car. It's chilly outside, so I hurry across the small parking lot and go in through the back door Brooke told me to use.

It's quiet inside, and I do smell a faint scent of fish, and I don't know where to go from here. I quickly text her that I'm inside, looking around me at the tall industrial ceilings and wonder what kind of animals live here.

I hear a door open, turning around and seeing her come down a hallway to my left.

"Hey." She says as she approaches me, and I smile.

"Hi."

"I'm pretty much done, Audrey says she can finish the rest. Although, if you want, I can show you around." She continues, stopping her steps right in front of me.

"That would be lovely." The smile doesn't leave my face, and she loosely tangles our fingers together as she nods down to the hallway where she came from.

"Follow me then." She smiles, leading me.

"Where you came in is mostly just offices, nothing interesting." She starts, her voice echoing slightly in the hallway. "The good stuff is through here."

Brooke pushes open the doors at the end of the hallway, and my eyes widen at the size of the room– more like a warehouse. The ceilings are high and industrial in here too, and tanks the size of pools sit all around us.

"Smaller animals are in here." She starts, leading me to the first tank. "These are just some of the turtles. That's Melvin," she points to the sea turtle swimming on the left side of the tank, "and that's Piper. At least I think so, I mix them up." She chuckles.

"Why are they here?" I ask, and will probably ask about all the animals.

She sighs. "So many reasons. Fish hooks, nets, blindness, cracked shells."

"Are they here permanently?"

"Not all of them. In fact, Joey over here– he's having surgery tomorrow, and when he heals he'll be released." She smiles. "We did a bunch of releases last year, they were so fun. I cried a couple times, not gonna lie, especially when we released Martha. She was a sea lion that never shut up and always flopped around, but god I miss her. Okay, over here..."

Brooke continues, talking as I happily listen to her light up over these animals. Never in my life have I witnessed such passion over anything, and I'm so happy she's here. Especially because I win too with having her with me– literally no one loses.

She shows me the otters, even more turtles, and then she's pulling me up the stairs to show me more. The deck upstairs is outdoors, but there's a roof for cover while still being open air. This deck is just as massive as downstairs, but the pools are even bigger. I hear sounds of animals, and my curiosity peaks all over again.

"This is the sea lion pool," she points, just as one of the sea lions flops out of the water and onto the deck. It startles me and I jump back, but Brooklyn of course doesn't flinch.

"He's not gonna hurt you. Wanna say hi?" She laughs, petting it on the head.

"Is he supposed to do that?" I exasperate.

"Yeah." She shrugs. "He likes to wander and say hi. Winston, this is Harry. Harry, Winston."

Winston– apparently– comes waddling up to me, and I don't know whether to run or actually let this happen. He's too quick, though, and he's in front of me and nudging his nose into my sweatshirt before I can blink.