Week 4 / Sunday

The next morning, she got a message from Tui while she was getting ready to go to work.

✉ Tui: Any chance we can facetime sometime today? Or Zoom?
✉ Larissa: Busy day today until 6pm. Working
✉ Tui: Oh
✉ Tui: I just ... wanted to introduce you to my niece. We’ve been talking this morning Oh
✉ Larissa: I can talk while I ride to work?
✉ Tui: really? That would be great
✉ Larissa: 10min
✉ Tui: Thx. Love you!

She facetimed Tui while she was walking her bike out of the apartment complex. “Hi Tui!”

“Hi Larissa.” Tui had a huge smile. Beside her she had a tween girl. “This is Aroha, she’s my niece who lives in Auckland, she’s twelve, and she’s horse crazy.”

“hi Aroha. Nice to meet you. I’m going to start riding my bike in a sec, and then we’ll switch to a normal call, I just wanted to see you properly first.”

“Check out the background, Larissa!” Tui moved her phone around, and they were sitting on the grass at The Virgin’s End.

“Oh, lovely! Aroha, that’s one of my favourite places in the whole world. Tui’s really lucky she lives right there.”

“I like it too,” Aroha answered shyly.

“Hey, Aroha, Larissa is my best friend in the whole world, no need to be shy around her. But it’s OK, you’ll get to know her.”

“Yep! Tui and I, besties. You showed her your necklace, Tui?” While Tui was doing that, she said, “I’ll call you back.”

She sat on her bike, and called back, just voice. There was one uphill bit she wouldn’t talk for, but otherwise ... she was used to talking and riding on her ebike now, when the weather was good.

Tui started by telling Aroha some of what they’d done on their honeymoon, and asking Larissa to comment. Obviously, for a twelve year old, she skipped all the adult stuff, but that still left a lot. What was Tui looking for here? But listening, she figured it out. Aroha was, well, a lot like Tui, so she started drawing her out the same way she had with Tui. Of course the discussion quickly led to Amanda, so Tui asked her how that was going.

Great. Really great. Amanda was supposed to go home but the kids had totally refused to consider it. Her son had his Koro, and was totally loving working the farm, and Huatare said he was actually getting useful, not just fun to have around. And he was militant about sleeping outside like a real man. Larissa was amazed – how cute, a little eight year old full time farm hand. Amanda’s daughter had gradually started to talk to them, and they’d found a ‘sick’ lamb for her to look after, and she’d taken to the task of feeding the lamb with fierce ownership, and that had gradually pulled her out of her shell. Now Amanda wasn’t sure how she could separate them at all.

And how was Amanda? Very good, actually. She’d started to thaw out through the week, and was hitting it off fabulously with Ann, and they’d started a project to do the shepherd’s hut up a bit more, and Amanda was providing the money and labour. And everyone was super happy with Amanda and kids being at the farm, but it created obvious problems in the medium term – school, father’s access etc.

And what did Aroha think of all that? She was really enthusiastic about this – she really liked those kids, and loved the lamb. But had Larissa really saved a woman having a heart attack? Well, no, nothing like that, so Larissa explained what had happened. Then she asked Aroha, had Tui showed her the warrior heroine outfit Larissa bought her.

She could hear Tui’s dismay at this, and Larissa burst into a peal of laughter. “Aroha, you have to ask to see that. But you probably have awesome horse-riding outfits.” That was a good shot in the dark, because Aroha had just got her new competition riding outfit, and she really wanted to talk about that. And she was super proud of that because it was better than her best friend’s, and how great it was to have something better than her. Which gave Larissa a chance to point out that real friends were happy when their friends did well, and helped them. But it needed to be reciprocal. Tui had learnt that over the years, and Aroha should always feel free to talk to Tui for wise advice.

That brought her to work, so she said goodbye to Tui and Aroha.

✉ Tui: Thanks. That was great. You’re dead right about friends, thanks for teaching me that
✉ Tui: And thanks for saying I’ll give her wise advice. Now I have to!
✉ Larissa: No. good luck. Have a good week. Love you. And Marty too!
✉ Tui: You too. Both of you

There weren’t many of them out working today, less than any day since Christmas, so she expected a challenging day, though she was finding things easier since she did so much work in her textbooks while she was away. That was really paying off. Even Mark was on the road today, she heard, and they’d decided: from tomorrow, people were working even if they were supposed to be isolating, though as few as they could get away with, so no rest for Larissa.

And it was a challenging day, but that had nothing to do with the veterinary challenges she faced. People were getting really tired and cranky, and a few times she had to remind people to be polite. And one time she walked out; the dog owner was refusing to wear a mask, and militantly unvaccinated. No doubt that would be a formal complaint, and they were yelling at her from the street side, calling her a ‘sheeple’ as she drove off. Fucking idiots, really.

A couple of calls later, it got worse.

She was called to a house to look at a dog suffering from difficult breathing. Yes. Difficult breathing, because it had far advanced lung cancer, totally inoperable, and extremely obvious to anyone. Poor dog, it was in a huge amount of pain, and panicking, looking at her in the hope she could do something. Well, there was only one option, and not one single vet would give any other: time to put this poor dog to sleep once and for all. The owner, a big guy, flipped, and totally lost his temper. This was his dog, and her job was to make it better. Was she stupid? Just fix it, like the last vet did. Larissa had no idea what that meant, and neither did he when she asked him. Right, she said, my advice is that there’s only option: put this dog down. The guy stood over her, up close, and ordered her to fix his dog.

She considered this, and responded, “It’s my opinion, as an authorised officer under the law, that I need to put this dog to sleep, and I am authorised to do that whether you agree or not.” She was perilously close to being assaulted right now. She softened her voice. “You have a choice right now. You can continue on your current course, and end up assaulting an authorised officer, a first responder. That’ll put you in jail, because they throw the book at you for that. Or you can back off, and sit on the grass outside, and I’ll wait for you to calm down so you can have some time with your dog before he goes to sleep. I understand just how difficult and sad this is for you.”

He took a few very deep breaths, and then walked out the front door without saying anything. Larissa patted their dog gently, and said, “You poor fella. It won’t be long now.” Then she turned to the guy’s wife who’d watched all this and had been cowering in the corner. Quietly she said, “If you’re concerned about your safety, you can get help. Or you can leave with me.” His wife thought about that but didn’t respond. “OK. I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. I’ll be out in my van.”

Out on the lawn, she said to the guy, “I’m going to do my paperwork in my van for a few minutes. If you want to spend time with your buddy, now would be a good time.”

He looked up at her, tears in his eyes, and said, “Do you really need to do this? Really?”

Larissa looked at him compassionately. “I think so. You can tell that he’s in pain, right?” Yes, he could. “And there’s no doubt about the diagnosis. Every single vet I know will agree that there’s nothing can be done. All he’s going to get is worse pain and distress each day. When did he last eat properly?” Yeah, she was right on the mark there. “Right. There’s no doubt here, only a question of how long. Perhaps you’d be more comfortable about the diagnosis if I wasn’t quite so young?” Yes, she’d scored there. “I understand. But consider how much harder I have to work, how much more correct I have to be, because I’m a young female.” He thought about that. “Would it help if I sedate him a little for your last few minutes with him, they’ll be more peaceful.” He really liked that offer. “OK. I’ll be back in a sec.”

Inside, she petted the dog again, and spoke to him gently. Then she injected what should be enough to make him quite drowsy, but not stop him breathing, though she had to guess at his weight.

Then she went and sat at their table filling in her paperwork for this and the last two stops. The two of them were holding their dog and crying. All sweetness now – what was with this guy, NPD? BPD? Or just slow to accept reality? But to let it get to this point ... that was bad. However, it wasn’t her business, and she had to be disciplined. Her business was the dog, and she could be happy at how she’d stared him down. A much better outcome for him, more than for her.

She knelt on the floor next to them. Their masks had slipped but she decided to let that be this time. “Is it time?” she asked gently.

“I guess so. I can see his relief. But can I ask a question?” Sure. “What happens after you put him to sleep?”

“Good question. Because it’s my decision, against your wishes, either I take your buddy’s body with me for autopsy, to confirm that I’m right, or I leave him with you for you bury here with a little tombstone, like my bosom buddy from my childhood, or you can go to the dog cemetery. But if I leave him with you, you have to sign a waiver saying you won’t dispute my decision.”

“There’s not really any question about it, is there?”

“No. There really isn’t, or I wouldn’t do this to you.”

His wife spoke for the first time. “We’d really like to keep our buddy, please.”

“OK. I’ll get the paperwork.”

When she got back, the guy signed the paperwork, and they held their dog as she injected the full dose. Then she rubbed his chest as he fell asleep.

She gave them a couple of minutes and then said, “I’m afraid I have to go. I’m very sorry for your loss. Even more sorry given I had to do that to you. I hope that you can heal and in time, you can find another canine friend.”

The guy stood up and surprised her. He reached at his hand and shook hers. “Thank you. You’ve been really nice to us. Standing your ground calmly when I lost my temper, that was very brave. I’m very sorry about that. And then you’ve been really compassionate, when I totally didn’t deserve it.”

“I understand,” Larissa said. “I have to do what I just did occasionally, and it’s always difficult for people.” Then she grinned at him. “And also, you should keep in mind ... I would’ve totally kicked your butt. Martial arts, you know. I’m glad I didn’t have to. So next time ... just don’t lose your temper, cause you never know.”

Yeah, he could actually see the humour in that.

She turned to his wife. “You’re OK? Nothing more I can do for you?”

“No, you’ve been great. Thank you for your love.”

Great. In the van leaving there, she could be happy with how she handled it. She wasn’t at all sure she would have actually kicked his butt, that bit was just to leave him thinking. But she had talked him down. Though they should never have let things get to that point. Yeah. Well, on with her day.

Her last call turned into a huge mess. She was on a farm out east of the city, and the evidence was clear: a reportable virus was clearly loose, and spreading fast. A virus? Hell she’d seen enough of viruses, damn things, and she really wanted to ignore the evidence but her instructions were clear, as was her professional responsibility, so she went back to her van and called her priority emergency line for the Department of Agriculture, and reported what she’d seen. It was like she kicked over an anthill – they told her to wait, not to let anyone leave, and within thirty minutes, the government officers started to arrive. The ones with real power, the power to quarantine farms, destroy herds, and close whole regions. The ones charged to protect the entire economy.

The first one to arrive looked at the evidence she showed him and said, “Right on the mark. Good call. You will get official recognition eventually. It’ll be months, of course. Government only has two speeds, right now, and much later.” His bit was the right now bit, and he started laying down the law to the farmers, to their great dismay. Larissa was only allowed to leave after stripping, disinfecting herself very thoroughly and putting a new uniform on. The old one would be burnt.

She called Julian on the way back to base: My day from hell, the worst ever, and I’m running late. I’ll pick you up from base, he said, I have something special for my awesome wife.

Well, wow...

She didn’t bother with a shower, and when she came out, Julian had her bike on the roof of the car. He held her tight and then in the car, he said, “Babe, tell me about your day.”

While he drove, she vented, and told him everything. While she was talking, she got her first news notification of the agricultural quarantines starting to kick in, and she showed that to Julian. Julian listened well, and made appreciative noises. “Babe, well done talking that guy down. Don’t feel bad you couldn’t talk Alice down ... nothing would’ve. Talking him down was really hard, well done.”