Chaos At Christmas – Episode 15
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
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- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 15
Geraint frowned. “Though I’m a bit surprised at how few people there are outside. It’s a lovely day today.”
Ferelith told him about the events in the pool. “It’s Lyle’s idea, of course. An organised battle between guests is the last thing you’d expect at the Manor but it’s happening today.”
Geraint gave a quiet laugh. “I thought I heard a racket coming from the exercise suite. How is Konrad coping? He’s usually very strict about behaviour in the pool. It must be difficult to do that when there’s a water fight going on.”
“He’s managing – just. He’s insisting on all the usual rules being followed. There’s no play-fighting, no running around, no bombing. And people are mainly sticking to that; no one wants to get on the wrong side of a man the size of Konrad. But I got the impression that he couldn’t wait to get back to dealing with our usual guests. With them, the most exciting thing that happens in the pool is people doing Jumping Jacks during aqua-aerobics.”
“He has my sympathy.”
“But I’m keeping from your work,” Ferelith apologised. “I only dropped by to see if there were any problems you needed help with. Dad asked me to check round.”
Geraint shook his head. “No, we’re fine.” He smiled. “And we have the penguins over there to entertain us while we work. But thank you for enquiring.”
Ferelith was just moving away when she felt the phone in her pocket vibrating. It was Lionel. “Hi Dad, what’s up?”
“Sorry to bother you, Ferelith, but some sort of problem has come up with the penguins. Angela has just been in touch.” She was one of the women who were looking after the penguins during their visit to the Manor. Ferelith heard her father give a quiet sigh. “They’re delightful creatures, of course, and they’re certainly popular with the guests, especially the younger ones. But I could really could have done without the hotel being turned into a petting zoo just a few days before Christmas.”
“I’m actually outside at the moment. I’ll have a word with Angela now and get back to you.”
“Thanks, love.”
As she put away her phone, she took a deep breath of the chill morning air. It was such a beautiful day; the sky was a dazzling blue. And just for a moment, as she looked around, her mind tricked her into thinking that the grounds really were covered with snow.
But her reverie was interrupted by an exasperated voice. A woman nearby was talking into her GroupChat phone. “Semira, it’s pointless to pretend that you’re not there. I can see that you’re in the games room and I can hear you and your brother giggling. We’re going to visit Granny and Grandad and I want the pair of you by the front door of the hotel within the next two minutes. If I have to come and collect you myself then I promise you that there will be trouble.” Ferelith smiled to herself; it sounded as if the GroupChat phones were proving to have disadvantages as well as advantages.
She headed to the penguins. As well as having access to the pool which had been set up, the birds also had a bit of lawn all to themselves and a tented enclosure where they spent their nights. The whole area was surrounded by metal barriers. She grimaced a little as she looked at the state of the lawn. In only a couple of days, the ground had become churned up and muddy. Geraint and his team would be faced with quite a challenge to restore it once the penguins were gone.
On the other hand, she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of them hopping up the ramp and slipping effortlessly into the pool. As they swam about in the water, they avoided each other like aquatic bumper cars, clearly having the time of their lives.
Three teenage girls were standing by the edge of the enclosure. One was filming the penguins with her phone while the other two were trying to attract the penguins’ attention. They called over to a woman in a blue boiler suit who was with the penguins inside the barriers.
PLEASE can we have a fish? We need the penguins to come over to us so that we can take a picture of them.
The woman shook her head. “Sorry, girls, we have to keep a very close eye on what and when the penguins eat. They’re not due for another feed for a few hours yet.”
The girl doing the filming lowered her phone with a frown. “It can’t be much fun for them stuck here with nothing to do. They should be swimming in the ocean, not in some tiny pool.”
The woman smiled. “So long as they have each other for company, a bit of space and some food to eat, they tend to be quite happy.”
The girls’ GroupChat phones began to make a trilling sound all at the same time. “It’s a meeting,” one of them said in a low voice.
“Where?”
They glanced suspiciously at Ferelith and moved out of earshot. Ferelith smiled to herself. Just for a moment, she wished that she was that age again with a life full of excitement and possibilities.
“Hi, Angela,” she said to the woman in the boilersuit. “My dad just got in touch with me. He said that you were having some sort of problem?”
She nodded. “It’s a small thing but it matters for the penguins. We have our feeding times twice a day when the young people can help to give the penguins their fish.”
Ferelith smiled. “They’re turning out to be popular occasions. The penguins are such characters.”
“The trouble is that a few of the guests are trying to feed the penguins at other times. They throw bread and nuts to them, all kinds of things. One child even kept back a couple of fish fingers from his tea and tried to give them to the penguins.”
Ferelith’s eyes widened. “Chef won’t be pleased to hear that. He makes those fish fingers to a special recipe.”
“It’s just that food which is suitable for humans isn’t necessarily good for penguins. They have a very specific diet. If they’re given other things to eat then it can harm them. Obviously, there are three of us here to supervise things but we can’t keep an eye on every visitor, especially when things get busy at feeding time.”
“So what do you need?”
“We could do with some signs asking the guests not to feed the penguins unless under supervision.”
“Of course. Tell me what you want the signs to say and I’ll sort that out straight away.”
“It would also help if we had a second circle of barriers to keep the guests a little further away from the penguins. That would make it easier for us to keep things under control when feeding-time is happening. Only those doing the feeding would be allowed through to the inner barrier.”
Ferelith nodded. “I’ll have a word with Geraint. I’m sure he’ll be able to organise that.”
“Thanks,” Angela said with a grateful look. “You’re brilliant here at the Manor. Nothing is too much trouble.”
Ferelith gave a rueful smile. “We’re like a swan swimming. Serene on the surface but paddling away like mad creatures under the water.” But she sighed to herself as she headed back to the hotel. Yet more things to add to her To-Do-List.
