Beach House Reunion (Beach House #5)(60)

She watched the fish swim around the coral and reflected on why she so enjoyed working for a nonprofit. She’d had a long and successful career in the corporate world, had enjoyed the excitement, the demands. In these regards, however, nonprofits were companies too. Certainly her time at the Tennessee Aquarium had brought creative challenges. In fact, because it was a small operation, she’d had to wear many hats and do so much hands-on work that each day was a surprise.

Cara began to walk toward the elevator where she was to meet Toy. She’d just had a successful client meeting. Her consultation business was on its way. Why then did she feel so nostalgic about her former job?

She knew the answer. Working for a nonprofit had given her a strong sense of purpose. Nonprofits had a mission. And the aquarium’s mission was to preserve and protect marine life—something she believed in and that gave her a personal motivation. What she sacrificed in a paycheck she made up for in satisfaction. And they needed good people running them.

“Cara!”

Shaken from her thoughts, Cara turned quickly to see Toy walking toward her. She was wearing jeans and a loose SC AQUARIUM shirt that couldn’t hide her pregnancy. Despite her snappy gait, as she drew nearer, Cara noticed gray smudges under her eyes and a lackluster skin color that spoke of her exhaustion. But her eyes gleamed with the news. They hugged warmly, as sisters would.

“Is it Big Girl?” Cara asked.

“Come see for yourself.”

Toy led her on a tour of the turtle exhibit and recovery area. Cara was deeply moved at having witnessed the hospital evolve from a dream and a makeshift hospital in the basement to this magnificent recovery center. Its growth, she felt, was a reflection of the growing concern about issues surrounding coastal development and ocean conservation.

“I’m so proud of you,” Cara told Toy, meaning it. “You’ve been here since the beginning. You’ve come a long way.”

“Thanks.”

But Cara saw the fatigue etched on Toy’s face and felt a sudden concern for her. “Are you taking on too much?” she asked gently. “You look exhausted.”

“I am. But it was an unusually busy day. Speaking of which, let’s go see Big Girl. She’s not up here. We still have a hospital in the basement. We use it for intake and critical care.”

Toy led her down the gray back stairs to the aquarium basement, a far cry from the sleek exhibit upstairs. Down in the bowels of the building was where the power of the great aquarium hummed. Giant pipes and wires snaked along the ceiling, and red-painted pumps with shiny black valves and rows of gray steel fuse boxes lined the walls.

“There she is.” Toy pointed to a large cylindrical tank.

Cara approached tentatively. The blue tank wall was solid, with a single window through which to view the turtle under the water. From the top, however, she had a full view of the sea turtle, its shell dusky brown and covered with nasty-looking barnacles. They even clung to her head and near her eyes. The turtle was motionless.

“She’s alive?”

“Oh yes,” Toy replied, drawing closer. “She’s had a busy morning. We scrubbed as much of the slime off of her as we could. Those barnacles will come off in time.”

Cara felt sorrow, seeing the ragged edges of the broken shell. “Look at that shark bite,” she said. “You can see the teeth marks.”

“I’ve seen worse. A lot worse. She must’ve tucked tail and skedaddled, because she got away without losing a limb or her tail. Experience.”

“Can she be released?”

“Oh, sure. We release turtles that’ve lost flippers.”

Cara looked at Toy. “So, it’s really Big Girl?”

A smug smile spread across her face. “It sure is. The tag was confirmed. I don’t know why anyone doubted me.”

Cara scoffed, “Maybe because I sure couldn’t tell if it was her . . . except for her size. I hate to say it, but it’s been years, and they’re not that different. Though she’s still the biggest sea turtle I’ve ever seen.”

Toy crossed her arms, her face soft with affection. “She sure is. And she’s even bigger after ten years.”

“Has it really been ten years?”

“I was putting this together in my mind. I was living in the beach house at the time. And Little Lovie was about five.”

“That’s right,” Cara recalled. “Brett and I had moved out of the beach house into his house.”

“And I had started working at the aquarium. They didn’t have a sea turtle hospital yet. Remember?”

“How could I forget? We had to put Big Girl in a blue plastic kiddie pool under the porch of the beach house for the night.”

Toy chuckled. “Do you remember we took shifts sleeping next to her in case she decided to crawl off?”

Cara barked out a laugh. “Oh, yes. What a miserable night! So hot and humid. And the mosquitoes!”

“As if you or I could have held back a three-hundred-pound sea turtle anyway.” They both laughed again at the absurdity. “It was a good thing she was so sick.”

“But we got her into the hospital,” Cara said smugly.

“Yes, we did. And she was the aquarium’s first official sea turtle hospital patient. It’s pretty amazing to realize that our first rescue turtle, the turtle that founded this hospital, that was healed and released, is back again. After a decade, she’s still laying eggs. Think of all the turtles this one produced.”