It is a love story set in the fascinating world of the Zoo. Wild Animals. Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY. The lady is Beautiful as well as talented. She is a Doctor as well as a Veterinarian. She is mysterious and alluring as well. BUT she has a secret that can change the World. Bill Peyton is an Attorney down on his luck. Smart, but he has problems, many problems. There is Officer Joe who befriends Bill. There is Pointexter a mean and arrogant Director. And of course There is Terrypoo. Set in New York city during the Summer and early fall. This story is hard to put down and it ends with a bang. A BIG one.

C.C.

BLUE LIFEBy William G. Walsh Sr.

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 William G. Walsh Sr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-4157-9

Chapter One

Oh man, what a headache. It is very difficult to remember just where it all began. Did it begin with the job interview on my first day? Yes, I believe it was on my first day. I remember getting the paper from a garbage can, and turning to the want ads looking for a job, as I knew it wouldn't be long before I got hungry, my finances being what they were.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty. After all it was my practice. I started it. I made it what it is today. Why did I have to be the one to leave? Why don't I just call Marie and tell her all is forgiven? No, damn it I won't. She betrayed me, not the other way around. I tried, I really did. Why did she do this to me, me who loved her? I remember when she first walked through the door, bright, fresh, so full of life. How was I to know that beneath that lovely exterior laid a heart so black it frightens me to remember. So cold, that she would use me to achieve her ambitions. To steal everything I loved and worked so hard for. And, I let her do it. I let her do it. I never dreamed she would use my trust in her against me. I often signed papers without looking at them. I never, never in a million years suspected her of such deceit. She obviously slipped those power of attorneys in with other papers to be signed, and I, being the idiot I am, signed them all. She must have planned it all right along. The whole two years she was my secretary. When did she have me sign that pre-nuptial agreement? Man, was she smart. I never even realized she was doing it. Never even suspected. Shit, I didn't even get laid properly. Kissed, yes. A feel here and there? Of course. Boy, she must have been laughing behind my back all the time. Didn't even get laid properly. Ah shit, forget about it now. Concentrate on your stomach, that has only a Big Mac in it.

Well anyway, there I was sitting on a bench in Central Park in New York City reading the want ads. You know, there really aren't that many jobs in New York City for a displaced person, and I was definitely a displaced person. I had been looking for a job for over two solid weeks and nary a bite yet. Bite hell, not even a nibble. Nobody will hire an attorney that doesn't have a decent suit. Hell, I looked like death warmed over. I hadn't shaved in four days, ever since that ratty old lady threw me out of that ratty old room over on the East Side. I had been sleeping in alleyways and I had just spent my last two bucks at McDonald's down the street. I almost lost my two bucks last night when I picked the wrong alley. Only my fast legs saved my ass from a good beating at the hands of a couple of mean looking punks. I was sure glad I was so good at track in good ole South Lake Tahoe High. I had sure let Mrs. Whitticker down. I'm only glad she's not around to see me now. Why can't I get on my feet? What's the matter with me? What happened to that fighter that used to be me? Ah fuck it. Anyway, here I am on this bench and I'm looking down this page. Accountants, Bakers, Messenger Boys, Paper Boys, Zookeeper. ZOOKEEPER, what the hell is this?

ZOOKEEPER WANTED NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. CALL 733-4233 FOR APPOINTMENT. MS. TAKANAGA.

A Zookeeper. Well, I'll be damned. I had always liked animals. Why, I had even had a few horses. Their names were Snooker and J.R. I used to brush and take care of them every summer. When winter was coming on, we used to transport them to the valley outside Minden, to their delight. Of course, I was also the one who had to chase the son of a bitch's down every spring and "try" to put them in the trailer to bring them back to Lake Tahoe. Why couldn't I take care of a few animals? What the hell, what's a little rhino shit? I could do it, I knew I could. It was perfect. They provided only a telephone number. Of course, they wanted to eliminate the riff raff. I could understand that, after all this is New York. There were probably thousands of people just like me hanging around, and they probably would swamp them with an address. Well, I was an educated man, where would they need a zookeeper? Of course, the Bronx Zoo! Wasn't I smart. Well, I'll just get there before anyone else, and dazzle them with brilliance.

I walked, and I walked, finally making my way to the zoo. What a neighborhood. Garbage piled up everywhere, dirty children, abandoned cars, punks everywhere. Thank goodness I looked so bad. I must have looked broke, because the punks left me alone.

It was mid-morning as I walked up to the gate. ADMISSION $6.75. I almost shit, $6.75? It might as well have been $300 for all the difference it made. I had exactly 37¢. I looked, expecting maybe a millionaire had slipped a hundred dollar bill in my pocket. I walked away from the gate feeling like shit again. I should call Marie and take that job she offered me. Maybe she would send, SEND? Lend me the money to come home to Tahoe? SCREW HER. I'd show her. I would do just fine alone. I've been doing it alone most of my adult life, ever since mom and dad had died in that plane crash in 68. They were only 4 miles from touchdown when something went wrong. A downdraft, a sudden change in the wind? Who knows? They crashed right behind the Outdoorsman Sporting Goods store. I could never pass it again without thinking of them. Ah shit, there I go again feeling sorry for myself. Anyway, I walked around the fence until I came to a likely spot to climb over. I pulled a garbage can over to the fence and proceeded to climb over when I felt a tap on my leg. Well, not really a tap, it was more like a sledgehammer striking bone. I yelled out loud, and fell to the cement screaming my fucking head off. Looking up, I saw the biggest god damn Cop I had ever seen. It looked as though he really enjoyed smacking somebody with his fucking stick . I come off that cement as though a tiger had bit me in the ass, swung my fist at his face, and proceeded to land on my ass again. I was really pissed now. I was gonna get me some pig butt. (Where the hell did I get that from? Well, that's what you get from sleeping in alleys.) I tried to get on my feet and fight like a man, but I couldn't seem to do it. I was so pissed and humiliated that I just couldn't seem to function properly. Plus, of course, my recent dietary habits weren't the best. And, I was weak. Oh fuck, I was an alkie by then. I tried not to drink. I really did. I had always been afraid of alcohol. My dad was an alcoholic. I knew it I guess, when he died. I saw him drunk many times, but I never realized it was a problem until the crash. My uncle Bill was a great man, but at the funeral he slipped and cursed my father for his drunkenness and blamed him for the crash saying he was probably drunk and thought the landing field was behind the Outdoorsman. Anyway, I was really pissed (as I've said six times at least). I got up swinging again, and again missed by a mile. Was this man a ghost or what? He was never where he was supposed to be. I swung again, and again. He just ducked and guided me around him. Each trip around him was quite a trip, as he was so big. He finally started to laugh and the more he laughed, the more pissed I got. Finally, I swung, I missed, landed on my ass, and stayed there. Exhausted. He, by now, was in hysterics. He was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. I looked at him, and in spite of myself, started to laugh too. We looked like a couple of idiots, a giant standing over a drunk sitting on his ass. It must have been a sight to see. I could just imagine...