Free Otter Under Fire by Dakota Rose Royce

Julienne floated into the room, wearing a brown leather blazer and dark wash jeans looking no older than she had thirty years ago. Her husband had radiated confidence, but she had grace emanating from every atom of her being.
    “Look who’s come to see us,” Leonard said as Carole swooped in for a hug.
    “Our girls became so beautiful, didn’t they Leonard?” Carole said holding Tempest away from her to look at her better. “And you dress divinely, of course, that is a lovely suit.”
    “I learned to dress from you,” Tempest said.
    “Thank heavens,” Carole said, “I remember you and Otter as girls and I almost despaired.” She laughed a little.
    Tempest felt immediately like the awkward teen with her legs too long and her boobs too big. She remembered too, all of the extra time Carole had taken to teach her to dress her body and to move gracefully. She was unexpectedly awash in memories of breakfast on a balcony over-looking the city, eating fresh crepes and omelets made by the man himself while making giggling plans of shopping, museums and shows.
    “I don’t know if I ever said thank you for all the wonderful things you’ve done for me,” Tempest began.
    “Oh honey, you’re family. No need for that.”
    “So why did you ask me here?”
    “Well,” Leonard cleared his throat, “we have a business proposition for you.”
    “OK,” Tempest said, sitting on a wing backed chair.
    “We’ve been watching your career and we think that your business and our new project might just work well together.” Carole said as she made herself comfortable on the sofa.
    “OK,” Tempest wasn’t sure if she should be worried or not. “What kind of project?”
    “First of all, I wrote a book.” Leonard said.
    “I’m not familiar with that kind of marketing,” Tempest said hastily, “I don’t know anything about publishing.”
    “Oh don’t worry about that,” Leonard said, “I already have a publisher, but the book leads into some other interesting things.”
    “We’re starting some factories,” Carole said. “Small ones, quietly in small towns, we don’t want to draw too much attention to what we are doing yet.”
    “That sounds interesting.” Tempest said, perking up in anticipation.
    “I’m going to release a new fashion collection that is totally made in the United States, and some of the factories will make those pieces.” Carole said with a sweet smile. “My fashion house still operates in New York; this will be a special division.”
    “So we wondered if you would like to be in on the marketing project.” Leonard said.
    Tempest’s heart hammered. “I would love to do some of course, I’m not sure if I could do it all.” She knew that they could possibly be handing her the opportunity of a lifetime.
    “We’ll work that out. But we want you to see everything first and look at the plans.” Carole smiled sweetly.
    “I engineered the production line, for the clothing and for my new gadgets. But some of the gadgets are based on my book.”
    “OK, let’s see your book.”
    He brought out sheets of text and sketches. It was well written, humorous, and practical and the drawings were perfect, however the subject matter was a little…unexpected.
    It was all about squirrels. Fat, furry things with fluffy tails-- they fluidly danced across pages and up the margins. They gorged on acorns and scampered up trees. The entire bevy of mechanical sketches comprised of squirrel feeders and barriers designed so they wouldn’t raid bird houses or get into someone’s attic. One whole chapter was devoted to tips on keeping one or two families of squirrels on your property to keep all the rest at bay. They even had a section of squirrel toys and puzzles to keep them occupied.
    “Squirrels?” Tempest asked.
    “We’ve grown rather fond of them.” Leonard said. “When we first moved out here, we decided to be entirely green. The house and outbuildings are solar and wind powered. At first I wanted