***** Vol.1 Chap. 6 Remembering her childhood *****

In the afternoon, Kristin had a brief break, though the day was far from over.

Back at her office with another cup of strong coffee, her thoughts wandered to her dream from last night…

The freedom of frolicking in her beloved ocean and the joy of interacting with the ocean creatures brought her unspeakable delight. Her conviction to care for all creatures became her lifelong goal. She wanted to communicate with all intelligent beings in the ocean.

She picked up the DRD device on her desk. In her mind, she imagined chatting and caring with all creatures on earth.

She recalled one day in second grade, on her way home from school, she saw a young chick fallen from the nest on the neighborhood tree. Heartbroken, she took the chick in her hand and carried it home. She dared not tell her parents about the chick, but finding an empty shoebox, she took some tissue paper and lined the shoebox all around. The chick squawked happily in the box after she put the box under the lamp at night. She got some bread crumbs for the young chick as well. After a week of nursing, she was overjoyed when the chick began to move and squawk rigorously. So after her parents left the house the next day, she took the chick back to the tree. Her heroic rescue gave her much joy and a sense of accomplishment.

During the following year, her parents got her an ant farm. Overjoyed beyond her wildest imagination, she placed the queen ant on the ant farm. Every day after school, she ran home to examine the farm. She was the first to notice ant eggs on the farm. She was also the first to realize that the eggs had hatched into larvae. When the entire colony finally arrived, she spent hours sitting in front of the ant farm, watching them going about their business.

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She loved seeing them dig the tunnels and carve out their living space in the sand. In her spare time, she would catch small dead beetles and bugs for the ants to eat. Her whole third grade passed by rather quickly. Her parents once asked if she remembered anything from school. Well, she might not recall what happened at school, but she could tell how many ants lived on her ant farm. In fact, she claimed she had names for every ant. She vehemently defended her claim, though no one else in the family believed her or her obsession. So, her claim remained unchallenged.

In high school, after the parents’ divorce, she lived with her grandmother in Miami because she did not want to leave her friends in their last two years. Her dad moved away to Fort Lauderdale while her mom moved back to Kentucky. She was miserable every day. She hardly talked at home and barely ate much at all. Her only joy was her precious aquarium and the fish inside, which she treated as precious as her own life.

Her grandmother gave her a little puppy for her birthday so that she would stop staring at her aquarium all day long. The puppy brought about a minor distraction and gave her some amount of happiness and companionship. The puppy was mostly covered with white fur, so she named him Milky. Whether dogs were man’s best friend, Milky certainly was her best friend. Milky stayed with her everywhere. Those two were never separated. Milky slept in her bed and followed her even to school, although he had to wait outside the school grounds till the end of school. But as much as Milky was her constant and faithful companion, she never forgot her fish. She still spent hours taking care of her fish and finished the chores to keep the aquarium clean.

“Miss Sobinowski!”

JoAnn’s voice brought Kristin back to reality.

“Time for the sub installation check and christening event!”

Jolted back from her past, Kristin shook herself loose from her daydreaming. “Thank you, JoAnn.”

She picked up her folder and headed out to the dry dock, but all the time wishing she could remain in her aquarium, in her dream, in her utopia.