Page 4 of Fireworks at Pennycress Inn
‘Yes! Ring me tomorrow. I want to hear all about your first day at the office.’ Stacey paused before whispering loudly, ‘I’ll leave you with two words before I go though – Leaving Party!’
‘Don’t…’
Too late. The phone line was silent. Stacey had gone.
Taking a deep breath, Polly pushed all thoughts of Zac Sinclair from her mind. He was in her past and she was now focusing on her future.
Polly threw her mobile onto the bed, the device bouncing on the spongy mattress. Now, that looked good. She’d have just five minutes, maybe ten, before she went out exploring. After all, what with saying goodbye for now to her little home and the train and taxi ride, it had been a long, emotional and exhausting day.
Throwing herself down next to her mobile, she sank into the puffy duvet and closed her eyes, the faint tune of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the children’s party below lulling her to sleep.
4
Letting the glass door of the large visitor centre positioned on the edge of Meadowfield Nature Reserve close behind her, Polly slipped off her coat and pulled at the hem of her pale blue shirt. She hadn’t known what to wear. As a volunteer, she’d always rocked up in jeans and an old jumper, but now she was an employee she wanted to make the right impression.
Polly looked around. The vast foyer was largely unused by the looks of things, more a sad corridor leading to the cluster of visitor toilets at the far end. Someone had tacked tired-looking photographs of the reserve to the walls a couple of feet apart, the curling edges of the information guides beneath told dreary stories of its history. It didn’t look particularly engaging to her, someone who was interested in conservation, so she could only hazard a guess that the normal day-to-day visitor strode right past, ignoring them at best and not even noticing them at worst, on their way to relieve themselves after the picnic lunch they’d brought with them.
Or maybe not. She glanced back out of the large windows surrounding the double doors as rain lashed against the glass. There’d be no picnics here for a while. Not with this weather.
Looking around, she noticed two doors leading off the foyer, one labelled ‘classroom’, the other ‘offices’. That’s where she’d be going, then. To the offices. Now she was here, all the excitement which had been building up to this day had suddenly disappeared and instead been replaced with cold fear.
What if she didn’t fit in? She wasn’t local, after all. What if her new colleagues didn’t believe she could do a decent job because she didn’t know the area? Being local would definitely be an advantage in a role like this.
Or what if they just didn’t think she was likeable? Even Stacey had once admitted it had taken a while to warm to her. Polly had tried hard over the years to be more assertive, less shy, but she knew she still had a long way to go. She knew people still came to the conclusion that she was stand-offish, even though that was the furthest from the truth. Apart from with Stacey and a handful of old school friends, she’d never felt anything like confident with her peers.
Turning back towards the door, she took a deep breath, hoping the sight of the trees circling the car park, the rain and the general ambience of the nature reserve would go some way to steadying her nerves. Today was a big deal. She couldn’t pretend it wasn’t. After all, if her new colleagues didn’t like her, didn’t gel with her, or came to the conclusion that she was incompetent, then the promotion might just be less of a given than Mr Bob had promised her. But she was here now. She was on the first step of her new journey, and she was damn well going to do her best to make a good impression.
Fixing a smile to her face, Polly turned back around and made her way towards the office door before rapping her knuckles against the wood.
‘Hello?’ A man sporting a dark green short-sleeved polo shirt despite the chill in the air, a brush of a white beard and the greenest eyes she’d ever seen pulled the door open and stood in the doorway, his large frame almost reaching from one side of the doorframe to the other.
‘Hi, Declan, is it? I’m Polly Burrows, I’m your new recruit.’ Trying to feign an air of confidence, Polly stuck her hand out, grateful when the older man took it. At least he was wearing a name badge with his title of project manager written beneath. It was a good start that she didn’t have to flounder and try to work out if he was her new boss or not. He was.
‘Polly! Fantastic to meet you! Come on through. We’re all excited to have you join our small team. We’re small but mighty, ay?’ After closing the door again, Declan held his arms out wide to encompass the room, the one person sitting at her desk turning and grinning at him.
‘Oh yes. We are. Or that’s what we tell ourselves.’ Pushing her wheeled chair back, a woman with jet-black hair stood up and walked towards them. ‘Hi, Polly. I’m Vicki. I’m the program assistant around here, so any admin jobs you need doing, just shout.’
‘Great, thanks.’ Shaking Vicki’s hand, Polly frowned as something bubbled beneath the sleeve of the woman’s dark green sweatshirt. ‘Have you got something in your sleeve? It’s moving.’
‘Haha, that’ll be Rolo.’ Vicki held open the cuff of her sleeve as a small, brown rat poked his nose out.
‘It’s a rat!’ Polly swallowed. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it definitely hadn’t been that.
‘Vicki here volunteers at a wildlife rescue centre in her spare time. Not sure how she does it, but she’s always bringing in some sort of creature or another, aren’t you, Vicki?’ Declan gently stroked the rat’s nose before it disappeared back up her sleeve.
‘I do. This little one is only a baby. He was abandoned by his mother, so he’s being hand-reared.’ Vicki laughed as Rolo continued to make his way up her arm before peeping out of her collar. ‘He’s such a sweet character.’
‘That’s what you say about all the waifs and strays you bring in,’ Declan chided.
‘Well, they are.’ Vicki shrugged before turning back to Polly and flicked her hair dramatically as she grinned. ‘As I said, I’m Queen of the Admin, although there is only one of me for the entire team, but I’ll do my best to support you where I can.’
‘Great, thanks.’ Polly smiled as Vicki turned and flourished her arm towards her desk in the corner, an array of photographs of various animals crammed across the surface, with minimal space left for her laptop, which peeped amongst the clusters of frames.
Turning back, Vicki pointed towards two empty desks sitting side by side at the far end of the large room. ‘Over there are Dennis and Art. They’re out at the moment, but Art is the outreach and education officer and David the community engagement officer. They’ll be back at lunch, so you’ll catch them then.’
Polly blinked. Had she heard that right? Had Vicki said Art was the outreach and education officer? Did that mean there were going to be two of them? She’d been told her job was to fill a gap and, given the nature reserve wasn’t particularly large, she’d assumed she’d be the only one. Unless Art was here to show her the ropes and would then be leaving? Yes, that seemed likely.
‘The ranger, Harold, will be pottering about somewhere,’ Vicki continued, not once letting her cheery smile slip.
