Sat at his desk Josh stared at his screen lost in thought. He absentmindedly watched his screen to the repetitive chug chug sound of the printer as he processed the past few minutes. Firstly, his stifled guffaw at the revelation that the greasy lawyer had the same name as his fellow Brit. The contrast couldn’t have been starker.
Then it had all gone down. He’d watched with baited breath as Charlie entered the room the clash of both these strong-willed women, yet she acted as though nothing was amiss. Then he saw the look in her eyes and knew why. In her mind, there were more important things going on. He was proved correct and his heart jumped at the news about Copper. Yet he had complete confidence that Beau would deal with it, he always awed Josh with his dedication and pioneering treatments.
Only then had Charlie turned to face their visitors and the chill was palpable. The news about Miriam wasn’t a surprise given his close communication with her aides. They’d insinuated as much but it was saddening to hear said out loud. However, the practised tone of the somewhat clinical statement really set his teeth on edge. He’d heard too many homework excuses in his career as a teacher to fall for such duplicity. His eyes narrowed at the well put together businesswoman in their midst. Something bad was coming…
Then she revealed it. His eyes popped. A million! He couldn’t help but fantasize about spending such money. Setting up more marine conservation education. Offering trips for students and grants for academics. Buying himself a decent house back in the UK and paying back his parents for a countless amount of support throughout his career. He honestly couldn’t decide. He composed himself and glanced to Sam to gauge his response. The poor guy looked completely shook. He knew how much the place meant to every one of them. But Charlie would never sell… right? She confirmed his first thoughts with a prompt curt reply. He went to place a comforting hand on their marine mammal specialist when the secondary door to their mess hall slammed open.
He stood up straight at the sight of Seirye’s bleeding arm. “Wha-?” he began before she spoke and quickly left again. He looked at Charlie for direction before the team went into action mode. This was what they did well. He looked after Seirye and Sam with concern for the both of them. Before jumping slightly at his name. He nodded in confirmation and strode out of the room to implement his refined paperwork machine.
It was now that he found himself sat at his desk, the newly completed incident forms spooling onto his desk. He stapled the appropriate packs and wheeled his chair over to their pigeon holes unable to face the small pile in his in-tray. He slipped the incident form and accompanying medical form into Seirye’s shelf, a duplicate medical form into Sam’s and a repair and supply form into Max’s. He pushed his chair back to his desk and curiously typed ‘Elizabeth Camwell’ into Google as his radio chirped with a request to help his boss with Triton. He was torn about the release. Both euphoric at the release of the beautiful reptile but utter heartbreak at the loss of his favourite island resident so far. He grabbed the radio with a heavy heart, “on my way after a quick change” . He let go of the call button and swung back to his cabana to quickly change into some shorts before heading to the turtle pool.
