Closed Distracted Focus

[Nadia Kaster]

Volunteering at an animal shelter was something that Nadia had done a couple of times over the last couple of years. The Kaster’s had always had a certain affinity for animals and her mum’s especially had always seen animals as a big part of their family. She needed to visit them more often really. Lisa and Hayden had done a lot for her in the past and with Lucy travelling the world now, they needed someone to check up on them, surely. Her parents weren’t that old, well, not according to them anyway, they were in their fifties though, which, admittedly, was a little closer to her age than she would comfortably like. She liked her life though and she wouldn’t change it for anything, well, that was a lie, there were a couple of things she would have changed if she could. She’d been thinking about it for a while now, ever since that school kid contacted her. She was meeting with the girl soon, but she’d been finding it difficult to get her mind off of certain things. It had brought back memories she’d tried to keep buried for everyone’s safety.​

“Sh!t, sorry,” Nadia looked down at the little crup she’d almost stepped on. She wasn’t sure how old it was, but it looked like it was a curious little thing regardless and trying to keep her mind from drifting was her main goal right now. She kneeled in from of the crup and shook a couple of pieces of biscuit into her hand so she could feed it. It seemed content to just stay where it was though and had made no attempt to move when she’d almost stood on it, which she supposed was why she’d almost stood on it in the first place. “Sorry little guy, I was distracted a bit,” she said, though talking to animals rarely delivered any more insight into her emotions, it was nice to give a voice to them.​

She had company today, having invited James with her a couple of times over the last couple of months. She preferred having someone she could do this with because then at least she could talk to someone, not that she’d been very talkative lately, which definitely wasn’t like her. She still had the small handful of files she’d gotten from Adorah in her bag, both scared of what she would see and wanting to go over them with her first to see if anything needed to be added, which was why she’d wanted to meet with her in the first place, straighten it all out and such. Merlin, when did this become her life?​

@James Woodlock

 

[James Woodlock]

Things seemed to be going well between James and Nadie, they had been seeing each other for a few months and while they had yet to label what they were or really discuss it in any great detail, James felt good about whatever was happening between them. One of the more unexpected activities James had found himself doing was volunteering at an animal shelter, something Nadia did on a regular basis. James liked animals well enough, but he was a plant guy, he knew how to handle plants whereas animals always felt more…fragile which made him nervous. For a man who had raised four children, volunteering at an animal shelter should have been a walk in the park, but he knew it was important to Nadia and that made him feel all the more nervous about messing up.

James was busy stroking the belly of a crup who had planted himself on his back in front of him when he heard a little commotion to the side of him with Nadia almost stepping on one of the little pups. “Everything okay Nadia?” He asked over his shoulder. “You seem a little distracted,” It wasn’t like to her to be anything less than completely in the moment when they were at the shelter.

@Nadia Kaster