It’s an old house that has been modified to keep all the animals. What should be the living room is now a reception, with a desk and someone at the phone, some armchairs and a sofa around a coffee table with magazines and pamphlets. I hardly doubt someone lives in this house. All the decoration is animal-inspired, with pictures of cute dogs and cats that don’t seem to be by a professional. Maybe they are all animals that have been here. The cushions are animal-print and I wouldn’t normally like that —too flashy— but it looks appropriate in a place like this

I walk up to the desk where a young girl is still talking over the phone so I wait patiently with all the things I’m carrying still hanging. The bag with books, my purse and the camera. I don’t mind waiting so in the meantime I look around a bit more. I like that there are so many pictures and all the frames are animal-related, with some cat or dog thingy in a corner or with the full shape of an animal.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl says and only then I realise she’s hung up. “May I help you? I’m Alicia.”

“Hi, I’m Maca and uh… a friend sent me here. I think they are expecting me…?” I finish in a question, quite unsure about it. At the café and the fair people were actually waiting for me but I’m not sure about here. I don’t think they have time to fool around in this place.

“Oh! Maca, right, right. R— I mean he sent you here. I see,” she says and my eyes widen. She was about to say my stranger’s name… weird, she started it with an R but I thought the first letter was H. Maybe he meant first letter not as the one with which his name starts but the one with which this game starts. It’s an option. Or maybe she was about to call him by a nickname. “Yes, we’re waiting for you. I’ll call Rosie right away, just wait a bit. It’s really nice to meet you, he’s talked about you a lot.”

I feel the heat in my cheeks that you always feel when you find out someone has been talking about you; also that nervous feeling because you don’t know exactly what that person has told the others.

“Don’t worry, Maca, only good things. He forbade us to tell you his name, though. That weird lad,” she speaks cheerfully as she taps the screen of her screen quickly. She’s typing. “So, do you like animals?”

“I love them,” I say with a smile. “I’m really excited to be here.”

“Wonderful! Rosie is on her way. Why don’t you give me the books you’re carrying? I’ll keep them safe you can come back for them later. I know you’ll have other places to visit today.”

“Thank you, Alicia,” I reply giving her the bag with all the books I got in the fair. She keeps smiling as she puts the bag under the desk.

“So, what do you do? You look young, are you in Uni?”

“Yes,” I answer trying to keep my smile. I’m not used to smile for so long and to so many people in one day. “Linguistics and English Literature. This is my last year,” I add before she asks.

“Oh, that’s lovely! And complex. I bet you read a lot. No wonder you carry so many books,” she laughs. “And what do you do later with that?”

I lose my smile and look down for a bit because that’s a question that haunts me constantly. All my friends studied the same but they all had different goals. Mila and Moni want to be writers, Havi went more for the linguistic field and in fact she’s getting a Master’s Degree in translation. I, on the other hand, have no clue of what I’m going to do with this. I just love English literature and I wanted to study that, but I don’t know what I’m going to do. Most of my classmates become teachers, but I don’t want to do that. I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my future and thinking of that overwhelms me.

I like quite a few things, but I don’ see myself doing any of those things for a living. I know there are many opportunities there for a person that studied this, but I really don’t know what’s my true calling. I don’t want to do the same things my friend chose, but I don’t know what it’s that thing that suits me best.

“I… I’m not sure,” I reply in a whisper, ashamed that I’m almost done with my major but I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do.

Sometimes I think I should’ve chosen something that has fewer options and it’s narrower regarding the kind of jobs I can apply to later. Like Psychology or Engineering —even though I would hate that but it’s an example. It’s just easier to pick one thing when you have fewer options to choose from, that’s all. I could be a professor, I could be an editor, I could be a researcher, I could decide to go more into linguistics instead of literature and be a forensic linguist and work solving crimes like in Criminal Minds! I have so many options and I don’t know which one is mine.

“Oh dear, why do you sound so gloomy so suddenly?” Alicia asks me and I look up just for a second. She looks actually concerned. “If it’s about your future, don’t worry. You’re still young and most of us mess it many, many times. You don’t have to know now what you want to do.”

I smile at her as kindly as I can because even if she doesn’t really understand my situation, it’s really nice of her trying to make me feel better. It’s actually great to find people who care about others as to try to give them some support, even if they have no clue because I didn’t even reply to her question, she just knew it was about that.

“Thank you,” I say softly and she smiles brightly at me.

“Take things easily. Life is about trying and making mistakes, but learning as well. A life without messing up is quite dull, don’t you think?” she asks with a funny face that actually makes me giggle. “That’s better, a real smile. Oh look, there’s Rosie!” she exclaims before I can say thank you again and I turn around to find a woman, probably in her thirties, with short blonde hair in a pixie cut. She’s wearing normal simple clothes, just jeans and a cream coloured jumper, but she smiles wholeheartedly and that makes me smile as well. She’s accompanied by a man dressing simply as well, taller than her by a head, with short black hair and a warm smile as well.

“So this is the famous Macarena, it’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Rosalind but everyone calls me Rosie,” she says grabbing my two hands and holding them tightly. “I’ve heard loads about you. We’ve been waiting for you. This is my boyfriend Orlando.”

“Nice to meet you,” Orlando says and my eyes widen in delight. Without a word they look at each other and smile, understanding my reaction.

Their names are just like in the play As You Like It. I can’t believe it, that’s the most adorable coincidence.

“We met because of our names,” Rosalind explains. “A blind date, our friends said that we were destined to be together for the power of Shakespeare. It seems they were right,” she laughs and I just can’t hold my smile. This is absolutely amazing. “Anyways, enough about ourselves. Do you want to see this place and play a little while?”

“I’d love to,” I reply honestly and she lets go of my hands, asking me to follow her.

We leave the reception and I wave Alicia goodbye, following Rosalind and Orlando —I giggle in my mind every time I think of their names— through the rest of the house as I listen to their explanation.

“That room is where the newcomers stay until they get better. We have an agreement with a local clinic to sterilise the stray animals. After they are better we move them to this other room where they can get used to the other animals. We are a small shelter so we don’t keep many animals here, the maximum we’ve had is forty and it wasn't nice. So if we find ourselves with too many, we talk to other shelters,” Rosalind explains as we keep moving. “The ones that are fine are out during the day, playing or napping. If they are not still in good shape, we keep them in the cages. At night they all go back to their cages. All the volunteers help to keep the animals active, they play and make them happy. Sometimes they work as temporary homes for rehabilitation in some cases, until a real family adopts them.”

“That’s wonderful,” I say still following them. We’re going to the backyard, I assume.

“Our main goal is to help the stray cats and dogs, to show them love after they’ve been abandoned. We open for them a door to find a new family. We like to think of ourselves as the link between the loving home and a new member in the family.”

I can’t help feeling warm inside when I hear her talking like that. It’s absolutely beautiful.

“All these poor creatures go through such hardships when they are in the streets and it’s unfair because it’s not their fault, so we love them and try to give them their lives back. It’s amazing to see the difference between one of them when they arrive and when they leave. All the pictures you see around are of our guys and you see, they all look so beautiful and happy. It’s because they are loved here.”

We finally make it to the window that connects with the backyard and as Rosalind described, that’s were the animals are with some other six people. Playing, running or just napping. There are around ten dogs and some cats, around eight, I think. My smile is huge when I see them, running, barking, jumping, chasing someone. The sound of their games fills my heart with an indescribable feeling and I feel happy, I actually feel happy and light.

“This sight always catches my breath. To see them so happy and healthy,” Orlando comments and I look at them. He has his arm around her shoulders and she leans on him as they both watch the scene displaying in front of them.

“We started this after I saw a cat being ran over by a car. It was an accident, but I saw it and it was the most horrendous thing I’ve seen. That poor creature… just because it was alone and lost and feeble. I started thinking of how many of those accidents happened in a day and I just couldn’t sit and do nothing,” Rosalind tells the story and I feel her sorrow as it if were mine.

“She couldn’t be at ease unless she did something, so I suggested to help the stray cats. You know, to feed them and keep an eye on him,” Orlando continues for her. “After a few months it wasn’t enough so we started thinking of really doing something about it.”

“My sister is a vet so I talked to her and Orlando is an accountant, so we started this almost five years ago. We manage out of donations and from time to time we hold benefits to raise money. Everyone here is volunteering, because they also love animals. We don’t get anything in return but the satisfaction to help these little ones and to see them happy. There are just a few things as wonderful as the unconditional love of an animal. It’s so pure.”

I immediately think of my dog Oddie and his happy face every time I get home, his desperation when he’s so happy that he can’t stand still. His energy. All the crazy things he’s done. Oddie is family and yes, his love is unconditional and that’s so pure.

“I think this is wonderful,” I say and I really meant it. “What you do is amazing.”

“Thank you,” they both say this time smiling at me. “Now, would you like to go and play for a while?”

“I’m dying to,” is my reply and Rosalind smiles brightly at me.

“Then go! I’ll go for the letter he left for you. You also came for that, right?”

“Oh right,” I say, I had almost forgotten about that, too captivated by this place. “Thank you.”

“Just enjoy, I’ll be right back,” Rosalind adds with a kind smile before she turns around and leaves Orlando and I there.

“What are you waiting for? Come one,” he urges me and we both step forward.

-:-:-

Thank you for all the votes and comments! I didn't update before because I'm back to uni and I'm trying to adjust to classes again. It's hard waking up at 6 every day instead of at noon *sobs* It's my last semester so things are a bit tense... That's why I'm raising the votes number thingy, because I need more time to write the story. I hope you can understand.

So, the goal this time is 321 votes (hehehehe) and if you don't get it, don't worry, I'll update on Sunday anyways. I'm just trying to win some time.

Bel, xx