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“It’s Lulu. She’s sick.”
Trent raised an eyebrow. “How is she?”
“Not herself. Lethargic. Just… different.”
If it were anyone else, Trent would have struggled to take her seriously. But Patti had a special relationship with the animals, and he knew she wouldn’t joke about this. “I’m afraid I’m busy tonight,” he said. Patti’s face fell, so Trent quickly added, “But I’ll make time. Don’t worry. All the animals here are important. I’ll come by first thing tomorrow.”
It was a pleasure to see her light up with happiness.
“Thank you, Doctor North.”
“You know you don’t need to call me that.”
“What should I call you?”
Just call me Daddy.
“Trent is just fine.”
“You know, Trent,” Patti said, “if you ever change your mind and need someone else at the infirmary, th—“
But before she could finish her sentence, the door swung open, and Takis came in.
“Happiness comes from self-acceptance. It sounds like a platitude. But it’s not.”
Takis had been talking for a solid five minutes. He got like this sometimes.
“Without self-acceptance, we cannot progress or thrive.” He paused and looked around the room. “We’re all members of the age play community, and for us, this is even more true.” There was emotion behind his words, and through his Greek accent, it was clear that Takis was going through something right now. “When I first came to Littlecreek, I knew that the potential was here to turn this place into something special. We’ve come a long way, and we’ve stayed true to ourselves the whole time. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved here. For me, it was never about the money. It was about love.”
For a moment, it seemed as though he was considering something. Trying to voice something that he wasn’t sure he should voice.
Bunny, his Little, was close by. Trent watched her as she squirmed a little. Clearly, something was going on. The emotion was obvious in her eyes, too.
“Anyway,” said Takis, “I wanted to thank all of you, staff and guests, for your hard work. And, I wanted to open up for questions.”
Trent wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. He cleared his throat, and asked, clearly, “Takis, why haven’t you fixed the electric infrastructure yet? It’s been an issue since last month.”
Takis paused, then clapped his hands together in a lighthearted gesture of dismissal. “Ah yes, the circuit-breakers. We’ll sort that out soon. Probably need to invest a little more money into the boring stuff, huh?” Was that concern in his voice? Takis had never seemed concerned about spending money before.
“It’s hard for me to work,” Trent said.
“Noted. Any other questions?”
There were a few other questions, but as Takis answered them, Trent couldn’t help but feel as though something was being kept from them. And when he looked at Patti, who had concern etched into her face, he knew she felt it too.
CHAPTER THREE
Trentstoodinthestables with his brother Chuck.
He hadn’t slept well last night. After Takis’ strange speech and Patti’s unusual request, he’d tossed and turned all night. He couldn’t explain why, but he had the uncanny feeling that life was about to shift and change.
Right now was the calm before the storm.
In the morning, he’d woken to another uneasy event: Chuck rapping on the door to his cabin with unusual urgency. He’d pulled on his clothes in a daze, and followed his brother to the stables.
And now, here he was, about to examine a sick horse. It was his job, so why did everything feel so upside-down today?
Probably it was the lack of Miles Davis and bedtime study that had done it. There was nothing worse than the breaking of a routine to fuck up your day. It didn’t help that he’d promised Patti he’d take a look at her hamster first thing this morning too. He felt like he was letting her down.
