Page 6 of Triplet Tease

Siena tilted her head, and her whole face litup with a broad smile. “Having a close and supportive family alwayssounds great; I wish I had that.”

Discussing myself over coffee wasn’t how I’dimagined this going. I wanted to find out more about her. “Do youhave brothers or sisters?”

“No. I have friends instead. Well, oneparticularly close friend. She’s like my sister. I’m staying withher now, actually.” She picked up her cup and took a sip whilestaring off into the far distance, and it seemed that strand ofconversation had ended.

I sensed whatever truly brought her back toArlington wasn’tsomething Siena wanted to talk about, so I moved the conversation onto something different. “What about your folks? Do you have familyaround here or all in New York?”

Siena smiled. Talking about her family musthave been more pleasant for her. “My mom’s a career woman. When Ileft home, she did too. She divorced my dad and went to work for alaw firm in New York. She’s a commercial lawyer.”

“She’s far away, then. Do you see hermuch?”

Siena shrugged. “Not really. We talk on thephone, but she doesn’t have much reason to come down here. Even ifshe did, up until last week, I was in the back of beyond. It takessolid time travel to get there.”

I laughed. “Solid time travel works so muchbetter than the liquid version.”

“Precisely.” She winked. “My dad’sstill in our old neighborhood; he’s not far out of town. Heremarried, and I see him a couple of times a year. At least I cancount on him. He’s always there for me, but we aren’t superclose. But I want to know more about Ecuador. That sounds exciting.”

“Looks like we have a stalemate. I want tohear all about you, but you want to talk about something else. Goahead. What do you want to know?”

“Oh my, what to ask? Where to start? Whatwere you doing there? What was it like?”

“Um, volunteer work. It was nice.” Ishrugged. “Um…” I picked up my drink to take a sip while Igathered my thoughts. I didn’t know where to begin to sum up thelast six months of my life.

“Nice. Not much of an answer. Let’s put itthis way, I don’t think you’ll be able to turn your hand totravel vlogging.” She cocked her head to one side and raised hereyebrows. “It must have been very different from New York.”

“It was so different. I loved South America.I loved the countryside, the scenery, the wildlife, the remotelocation. The work itself and the people both made it enjoyable. On aweek to week basis, almost all the people we spoke to were involvedwith the animal sanctuary. We worked there, helping with whateverneeded doing. We all chipped in together. We were close to nature,too, and I liked that.”

“That sounds amazing. Just… Wow. It soundslike quite a responsible thing to do, a big commitment. How long wereyou at the sanctuary?”

“Most of the whole six months. Itwasn’tour first time there. We’d done a shorter stint there last year.”

“You must love animals. Do you have afavorite?”

I nodded. It was more complicated than merelyloving animals, but that was a part of it. “In the dog versus catdebate, I would have always said I’m a cat person, but I’ve cometo love monkeys as well. What about you? Are you a cat or a dogperson?”

“Well,I had a dog. A lovely spaniel called Pip.” She hesitated. “I hadto give him away when I came to live here. It just wouldn’t havebeen practical to bring him with me. I left him with a neighborin Springfieldwho loved him. She’ll dote on him and take him on long countrywalks.” Siena stared down into her drink and fingered the spoon.

“I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

“It was for the best. And I can go visit him,although I’m not in any hurry to go back to Springfield.” She sether spoon down on the saucer.

“Why not?”

“Oh, you know. Life moves on, and my life ishere now. I’m not one for dwelling on the past.” She ran a fingeraround the top of her cup. “What about monkeys, though? They’recute. Would you like one as a pet?”

I stopped myself from showing my real thoughtsand giving her a lecture; we were just chatting. I shook my head.“No, monkeys are wild animals, and they should live in the wild.”

“People do have them as pets.”

“They do. But most people underestimate howdifficult it will be to care for them in the long term. Many of themare abandoned after a few years. The sanctuaries are full to breakingpoint. And like us, monkeys are social animals. They’d normallylive together in sizable groups, depending on the species, not alonein a cage.” I picked up my cup. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean tostart a rant.” I’d barely gotten started, but I didn’t want theconversation to go that way.

“It’s okay; I can see you’re passionateabout something you know about. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I guess I’m passionate about animalwelfare.” I’d trained as a veterinarian, so animal welfare was myfull time preoccupation, but I decided not to mention that because Iwanted to discover what she felt passionate about, not talk about meand my work. I’d found that once you told people you were an animaldoctor, that was all they wanted to talk about.

“How did you and your brothers all decide togo and volunteer at an animal sanctuary so far away?”

“It was partly a decision made for us — byour mom, to be honest.”

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