Chapter 7

"DON’T FORGET TO feed the pandas Abe!"

Albert tread towards the panda area with a bunch of bamboo shoots in his shoulders. When he reached there, he greeted the two new additions to their shelter, Po and Ling Wong. Po was missing his left hind leg and Ling Wong’s a blind albino. They were rescued from an illegal research company of "evil" geneticists. 

"Some of those hardcore Darwinists y'know," his friend Connie stated.

Albert went in and gave the giant bears their brunch. "I heard. Apparently, they were trying to speed up evolution," Albert grimaces.

"I never understood why companies like this exist y'know," Connie said in her bewilderment. She rested her chin on her palm and placed her elbow in the fence and wandered off while staring at the eating pandas. 

"Why so serious? It's simple: to them, they're the good guys," Albert answered as he leans in towards the fence adjacent to where Connie is outside. He stared at the eating pandas while he lingers on the appropriation of the anti-hero in himself. He held himself back from breaking down in a soliloquy lest Connie think less about him. 

But he did used think for so long that what he was doing was not that far a derivation from the neutrality of the law; he was raised in that values under the roof of orders of the Baron. But he lately realized that the norm he’d been living was grades under the level of normalcy; even more than the so-called creature accelerators.

However, he didn’t dive deep into more of that memory avenue right while he’s at his peace zone. He just intently watched the adorable fluffs feast on the tall grass. Watching eating pandas has always been their guilty pleasure. Their last panda encounter was around a year ago so this is a well welcome comeback back for the black-and-white ursa aficionados. They pass a bit of time silently watching and hoping they don’t choke on the bamboo. 

After a while, Connie got closer to Abe's position as she grabs his head and caressed it. She cleared her throat and whispered to his ear, "Albert dear, can—"

"No." Albert looked at her with a straight face.

She babied up and slumped. "Ohhh come on! Just this once, please?"

"Yeah, I'm still on no."

"Pretty please?"

"The physical appearance of the please makes no difference," Albert referenced Despicable Me. They both chuckled a tad to that.

"I didn’t yield then; I won’t yield now.”

“And I thought the islands changed you.”

“Why does everyone kept saying that? It’s only been half a year.” He turned more towards his fellow-zoologist and he resumed his repudiation with a straight face. “And as much as I love you, I really hate night shifts." 

Connie's been bugging him for a while now about taking her night shift. And he knew exactly why; she's been looking for a break so he can go out with a date. But some part of Albert doesn't like working nights. Night owl as he is, the moon had always been his partner during his prepubescent sprees so he’s associated it with all the mischief he’d done. So, Albert cyclically denied the favor of Connie; it's not that he's being a bad friend.

"You know you're really being a bad friend, y'know," she mumbled.

Albert looked at her with a face that paints "really?".

Connie took it back immediately. "I'm kidding, you're the best, love ya’, see you around. I'll ask someone else probably. Bye!" Connie kissed his cheek and ran off towards the crowded areas.

Albert genuinely like her personality. Not surprisingly, he had many experiences with South, East and Southeast Asians during his time and their warmth is a really welcome trait to his Western glacial identity. Not to diminish Albert's friendliness that he apparently has, but he only is friendly to people he like and that's not a lot. And to those he does, he's only friendly in his head. 

Albert's been taught by the Baron and the world he was raised in to minimize his emotional output in his face. That was a factor, but most it, at least he thought, was him being desensitization towards fast-paced heartbeat events in his upbringing that he’s not easily excitable anymore. Even small fractions of emotions got reduced to a 2.

So, when he smiles, he's pretty much betraying how he was raised. He didn't mind though. He let one smile unto himself when she ran off like a gazelle blown in the wind.

He patted the head of the pair of grayscales and walked towards the offices near the labs. He wore some surgical gloves, masks, goggles and finally his lab coat. He thought about how he hates the specimen they'll be working on today. 

His job with the Pierre’s empire before this was only tranquil zero percent of the times. He did whatever they wanted him to do and that does a lot of things to a person. The underground was a mess then so he had to be hands-down hands-on with all the men-and-women-handling with the others as they use their paws, claws and jaws to topple literal empires.

So, when he finally got semi-fired when they capsized all the titans needed, he decided to change his daily stress-levels and put himself in an environment where every creature is a beautiful one. But nothing is perfect, there were still humans here and...

Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? He channeled his inner Indiana Jones as he whips himself up for the diamondback rattlesnake, Jörmungandr’s, surgery.

“So, do you want me to swap with you?” Connie remembered Albert’s ophidiophobia.

Albert looked at her as she wore an obvious conniving smile in her face.

She resumed when the frightened man didn’t answer. “I can swap with you in just one condition, Abe.” Her smile never diminished.

He thought about it. Unlike the one that traumatized him as a kid, this one's heavily sedated and he's a professional surrounded by other professionals; also, he's now an adult. He looked at the pitiful nope rope as he composed himself. 

One half-hour later, he finally got out of his red room.

Connie was fetching water in a distance but she had that look directed at the exhausted serpent fearer. 

Told you so.

Yeah, I know.

After their silent exchange, he went back to his locker to change. While digging through his bag, his phone rang. Almost premonitively, he didn't look at the contact's name and just answered without filter, "Ana, I told you I'll pick you up after work". 

The phone died. 

Sensing something wrong, he looked at the phone and, surprise, it was the person he aptly named 'Aa.Margarita'. Panicked rightfully swelled from him and he hurried outside to try calling her back. He opened the door but bumped Connie who was looking for him as well. His phone fell to the water bucket Connie was carrying with a soft drop.

plop

Everyone from a 10-mile radius dropped their jaws as Albert tried to resuscitate the phone.

Surprise, it's not water-resistant. 

"Stupid, cheap burner," he mumbled under his breath.

Reasonably, Connie was freaked out but Albert calmed her down and told her it was a dime a dozen phone. "I was just about to make a phone call, is all."

"Why're you in a hurry anyway?" he asked.

Connie answered, "Eh, someone's looking for you." She paused and leaned to his ear. "It's the one that got away."

Connie moved away from him to reveal Margaret on the lobby waiting for him.