Zoo by Tara Elizabeth Read Free Book Online

down at me and then across at James.
    “ Nothing. Why?”
    “ Geez. You on your period
or something?”
    I jumped up from the ground to face her.
“No! Can’t I get a little privacy around here?” The constant eyes
on me, even Janice’s, overwhelmed me.
    Janice looked hurt by my words and said,
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy. I just saw you
staring at the glass. I was coming to check on you. I thought maybe
you were upset or something. Were you two writing on the
glass?”
    “ Oh. Thanks.” I was thrown
off by her actually caring about me and instantly regretted my
harsh words. I knew that I should apologize, but I still wasn’t
going to tell her anything I learned about James, especially his
name. That was for me alone. “Sorry for the outburst. Guess I’m
feeling a little tense. Um. Yeah, he made some mud and wrote on the
glass. Smart, right?” I motioned over my shoulder.
    “ Yeah, sure.” Janice
didn’t seem very impressed. “Well, since you’re okay, I guess I’m
going to go and get ready for the show today. Going to milk Betsy
or something equally entertaining.”
    I didn’t know how they all did it, Auntie
Josephine with her singing, Janice with her sweet, farm girl thing,
and even the new guy, James, with his cowboy stuff. They all
performed for the public like they enjoyed it, and all I wanted to
do was rip their eyes out for watching me against my will. It made
me feel so dirty.
    I looked back across to James’ enclosure. He
had left the glass wall and was saddling up his chocolate colored
horse. Disheartened, I left our connection of the glass and trudged
over to our fruit tree. I plucked an apple from a low hanging
branch. Another one instantly grew in its place. It started out the
size of a small raisin and grew into a plump, juicy, red apple
within minutes. It was freaky.
    I spent the rest of the day crushing on the
hot cowboy and thinking about my next chance to communicate with
him again.

GLASS CONVERSATIONS
     
    The following morning I woke up before the
park opened. I rushed down to the front of the dome to see James.
He was waiting for me, sitting in the same place as yesterday. My
heart leapt into my throat, but I slowed my pace so he wouldn’t
know how anxious I was to see him. He was so ruggedly handsome in
his western wear that he could have been a movie star in my time.
So far, he was the only good thing about the People’s Past
Anthropological Center. He gave me something to focus on besides
escaping.
    I casually waved and sat in front of the
glass dome of my enclosure. I took special care as I mixed my water
into the soil next to me. It needed to be just the right
consistency to smear on the clear surface.
    James had already written
out Good Morning on his glass wall when I looked back toward him. He had a
crooked smile playing across his thin lips, and his blue eyes were
radiant.
    I smiled back and
wrote Good Morning as well. Then I wrote, Lonely?
    He shook his head no and
wrote, Good horse. You?
    Absolutely. I was more than lonely, even though people
surrounded me most of the time. I shared this easily with James.
Somehow the fact that he had only been around for two days, and I’d
never spoken face to face with him, didn’t matter. Actually, that’s
probably why it was so easy. I knew I would never get to meet him
so there was nothing to lose. But I wanted to meet him
badly.
    What do you miss? I drug my fingers over the glass with care to ask
the personal question.
    His face turned grim as I
made him think about things he probably would have rather not dwelt
on. He wrote, mother and little sister.
provided for them. father died in war.
    Oh no. I shouldn’t have asked. The look on
his face broke my heart. He poured a little stream of water over
his muddy answer to wash away the memories of his lost, loved
ones.
    I shared with him; I miss my mother and father. Friends. I didn’t write the superficial things that I
missed like my car, shopping, or the