Chapter Text
Everything was black, as it always had been since she was born. The splash of the surrounding water was the only sound she could hear. The waves still moving fast but not as furiously as before, when she suddenly fell and found herself in that surreal situation. How many minutes have passed since then? Hours even? Did someone see her fall? Were they coming to get her soon? Was she going to die? So many questions were running inside her head and yet, for some weird reason, she didn't feel scared, just very...
-Time to wake up sleepyhead! - the soft yet firm voice of Kara finally broke the spell of the strange yet familiar dream Ephy was having. It was not the first time she dreamt about that of course but it never ceased to leave her in such a confused condition right after her awakening.
- Please just give a minute to...-
-Do I have to remind you how late you are already? Hurry up, breakfast is long ready. I asked Ginko-san to give you a lift for today -
- Oh, it wasn't necessary, really. I...-
-You're still leaning in your bed! - the crystal clear voice of the king cobra beside her was thrilling slightly, which meant she was getting upset. Ephy got the message and jumped to her feet to find her way to the kitchen to grab the marmalade toast that was waiting on the counter at the usual spot. Eating it as fast as she could she soon went back to her room to get her clothes and start getting ready to go to work. The laundry shop was luckily not too far from her apartment, where she lived with her roommate, Kara-san. She was a freelance worker, so she could easily take care of her job and the house while Ephy was out. The first time she met her she knew that all the other housemates always flew away from that apartment as soon as possible, since she was a reptile and it was well known how snakes, especially poisonous ones can be...unpredictable.
Even though she was pretty nervous at the beginning, Ephy soon found herself being more and more spontaneously opened up to her usually composed and elegant but kind and thoughtful housemate. She was now at the age of 26, five years older than Ephy, and proudly single and content with her work as well as her life.
It's not that Ephy herself held something against her work at the laundry. It was actually a fairly paid and pretty simple job to accomplish, even for someone in her conditions.
Being a blind primate has always being a huge pain in the ass. Every species in animal society has it good and bads, but none of them was as arrogant and snobbish as primate group. They were proclaimed to be one of the first species to create the basis for the modern civilization. Their greatest characteristics were their flexible minds, unlike canines, and their agility, only comparable to felines. And of course their unique appearance was one of the most envied from the other species. The facial structure of a primate was something that could be found nowhere else, really. Short and simple snout, not long and bulky like many other species. Small and cute nose and originally shaped ears.
To be fair, a red-bellied lemur like Ephy was not considered as worthy and mighty as a chimp or a gorilla, one of the major elite in primate society. But even lemurs had their share in the infinite proud of primates. One of their most obvious beauty standards where their soft and fluffy fur, their long and elegant body and of course their big, round, bright and colorful eyes!
That was exactly the biggest problem of Ephy's life: being born as a blind lemur was considered the greatest curse of her all existence as a primate, since even in modern and civilized society there was still the lingering old superstition that handicapped primates were curses by heavens and so they brought bad luck as part of their conditions. Even though she now learned to ignore all the chatters of animals who spotted her on the street, it was still frustrating to feel all the anxiety from other animals, even outside of her species that decided to join her in a conversation. Every word was always used with great care, in order not to offend her or make her feel anywhere near discriminated. That was one of the first reasons why it was rare that she could actually speak with someone without hearing those nervous notes inside their voice, barely hidden under a cover of laughs and jokes. She appreciated their efforts at least not to treat her like some kind of alien, or a straight living bad luck charm like most of the primates would, but it was still hard to feel totally at ease and being able to make new friends, right now only Kara, her house mate was the only one she could call an actual friend.
Ephy never asked much from life since she had started living in that small apartment with Kara. She just wanted to leave in peace, minding her own business and at least keep some dignity against all those whispers that flew around her during her walks and go through another day of her well enstablished routine.
Once she was finally ready she went to the door to get her shoes, where Kara-san was already taking her cane off the wall to hand it to her and then open the door.
Ephy really felt it was unecessary to ask poor neightbour Ginko-san to bring her to her work place, but all in all she was really late and it was too risky for her to go running on the street, so a lift could actually be a good idea. The badger was waiting near the exit. Once the young lemur went out of the elevator he hurridly accompained her to the car and helped her take a seat. His voice was always edging with stress for some new problem at work or even at house, since he latley had issues with his kitchen's fridge, but always too busy to get a new one. This time he was clearly more concerned with the fear to be late at his office of anything else, but still was polite enough to ask Ephy how she and Kara-san were doing. That conversation felt a little awkward at times, since Ginko-san kept most of his time mumbling curses to the traffic, but in he end they arrived before the "Bernie's Laundry" soon enough.
Well, considering she was still kind of late Ephy had already gathered a good list of excuses to present to her boss, Bernie the boar. He was usually a very friendly-like fellow when it came to clients but could as well be as scary as a tornado when problems occured with his staff or machines. More than once he threatened his employees to fire them on them spot during one of his rage peak. Fortunatley enough those threatnes never became more than that, but still none of the animals who worked inside that laundry tried to test the patience of their hot headed boss.
Ephy was just entering the shop's door that she heard Bernie's already angry voice.
-Do I pay you to sleep all morning Ephy? You know what time is it now? -
-I'm so sorry Bernie, I just didn't feel well yesterday night and so I slept a bit more to make sure to be fully recovered! - was the white lie of the young lemur
Bernie's tone soured up slightly at that answer.
-You did check your temperature before coming here, right? Last thing I need is my all my employees to fell ill in one day! -
-Y-yes sure! All is fine now! - Ephy dared to show a supposed-to-be reassuring smile.
Maybe in other circumstances Bernie wouldn't have been so easy to convince, but something in his voice gave Ephy the slight hint of something else bothering the boar's mind. She was quickly dismissed and so she counted the steps she needed to arrive in the lockers room, where she got ready to start her waiting work. Usually she had to take the washed clothes from the machines and take them away to dry.
There were two other workers in the laundry: Becky the mongoose, whose work was to iron and fold the clothes and Mike the kangaroo, who was in charge of the delivery service once the clothes were ready. Bernie was usually in charge of the phone calls as well as charging the machines, since he probably didn't trust Ephy to do that alone. He always left the washer's door open in order to let Ephy know which one she had to take the clothes from.
"Bernie's laundry" was well known in the city and finding clients was never a problem considering all the apartments surrounding the area. Ephy liked the smell of fresh washed clothes and while hanging them out she enjoyed the feel of different texture under her fingertips.
Once the first pile of shirts and pants were ready she brought them to Becky, who was just finishing the last one she had.
-Hey Becky, have you got some clue why Bernie is acting so strange today? -
- What do you mean?- asked the mongoose, sounding still very focused on the task at hand
-I don't know...he usually would have spent half an hour yelling at me for getting late but this time he seems...distressed-
-I can't really tell. He always has his head full of some shit and he always play mysterious when you ask him about it. Just let him be, once he has done grudging he'll be the usual jerk he always is -
-Do I pay you to chatter over there? - was the sudden annoyed voice of the boar from the near room
- No, boss - was the quick answer from both girls
-Then just get your job done or I'll personally kick your sorry asses out of here!-
-Yes boss!- that said everyone went back to their tasks.
