Zoo by Tara Elizabeth Read Free Book Online Page A

$4.00 a cup vanilla lattes
that I got several times a week. Those things didn’t even compare
to his loss. How shallow of me that I whined to Janice about
them.
    He nodded again, acknowledging both of our
losses. Then we sat and stared at one another for a little while
with nothing left to say.
    James and I didn’t leave our spots facing
one another, across the expanse of the public’s walkways, when the
park opened. People of all ages, wearing all eras of clothing,
trickled through our section of the zoo. Some of them paused and
looked at our muddy messages on the glass. They curiously looked
from me over to James. I bet they were thinking and even saying
aloud, “Silly animals.”
    I didn’t care. I stayed where I was seated
and coldly stared back at them.
    Until, I saw him . . .

WHAT DOES THIS GUY WANT?
     
    A man I’d seen before was standing right in
the middle of the public walkway—right between James and me. He
stayed in place as people passed all around him, moving from one
enclosure to the next. I recalled his tan skin and firm build, but
he was no longer wearing a grass skirt, nose piercing, or showing
off his tattoos. Instead, he was dressed like someone from my era;
with khaki shorts, a plain gray t-shirt, and black flip-flops. It
threw me off for a minute.
    More than anything, I still recognized
something in his eyes, but was unable to place it for a second
time. That day, though, his eyes were unhappy. It made me
uncomfortable. I quickly washed my messages to James off of the
glass wall and picked up my water pouch. I wondered why I felt
guilty all of a sudden for communicating with James. I couldn’t
figure out who the strange guy was or why he had such power over
me. I was sure he knew things I didn’t. Perhaps he had secrets and
a world of knowledge that I wanted to hear about, or maybe he was
just a stalker.
    I rose to my feet and smoothed my dress out,
and then I left James sitting alone with his own messages to wash
away. I hurried away to find Janice, never looking back at the man
that was surely watching me retreat. In no time at all, I found her
talking to Betsy. She had a carefree air about her like life in a
zoo suited her just fine. This made me angry and envious at the
same time. I couldn’t help but want to force my own opinions down
her throat. Why wasn’t she feeling the same things that I was
feeling? I didn’t quite understand her point of view, because I
didn’t live her life.
    However, at that time, I was more concerned
with the weird stalker than Janice’s stance on the zoo. I whispered
to her, while I kept my back toward the public and him, “Janice,
don’t be obvious, but do you recognize that guy in the gray shirt
staring at me?”
    Janice casually walked around Betsy, all the
while stroking her coarse coat, until she was once again standing
next to me. “What guy in a gray shirt?” she asked.
    When I turned around, he was gone—and Janice
had one more reason to think I was a little crazy.

JAMES
     
    James and I met for our mud-chats most
mornings. He always waited for me in the same place, ready to write
a new message. He must have been an early riser in his old life.
For me, it was a struggle to wake up before the zoo opened, which
was early by most people’s standards.
    From our conversations, I learned that James
was from Colorado and missed it dearly. I learned that he’d been
working since he was a young child, and therefore, he didn’t have
very much education and often misspelled things. I never corrected
him. I learned that his mother’s name was Helen and his sister’s
name was Rose. He also had a baby brother named William. William
died of influenza when he was an infant.
    He had a hard life. I did not.
    I thought back to all the things that I took
for granted like antibiotics, which probably would have saved his
brother’s life. His stories made me realize how great I had it and
how fortunate I was to have grown up in my time and not his. What