The End
of Summer
by SuniD
Three friends
agree on a day at the zoo to honor the end of summer. Christina’s
family has a pass and she says Jeff‘s her cousin to sneak him in.
They both have fair skin and blue eyes, so no one suspects. Robbie’s
taller with black hair and brown eyes, which makes it obvious he’s
not related. He has two weeks’ allowance in his front right pocket
to get in and buy ice-cream for him and Christina.
Robbie goes
through the line first and grabs a map. Christina shows her cardboard
pass to the teller and gets her hand stamped. Jeff pretends to get
stuck in the turnstile and people line up behind him wearing
disappointed faces. Christina grabs his freckled arm with both hands
and pulls. Jeff flies through the gate, crashes into Christina, who
bounces off Robbie, and the three friends run away laughing toward the Big
Cat exhibit.
Christina watches
the Bengal tiger intently. A giant sandpaper tongue glides slowly
over a banded thigh. The giant tabby stretches out a front paw and
cleans between each toe, taking care with the claws. Robbie yells,
“Lazy tiger!” and tries to rile it up. He prefers the anxious
panther that needs no provoking. It wants to eat all children,
indiscriminately. Jeff likes the playful lynxes, gray and white with
long whiskers in each ear, wants to take one home. They may be small,
Jeff says, but one could take care of the neighbors’ yappy toy
poodle for sure.
The friends talk
about where to go next. They look at the feeding times printed on the
back of Robbie’s map. Jeff thinks they can make it to the monkeys
in ten minutes, but they have to cross Koi Bridge first. They want to
stop and feed the monstrous goldfish, which will take time. Robbie
wants to see the sharks shred whole sides of beef in two hours, and
they all agree. Christina says the sea lions sing for their lunch and
it starts in half an hour, so they have time to feed the fish on the
way.
