Zoo (10 page)

Punishment will be an
absolute consequence to my bold actions, but I accept that. This is
the best plan I’ve had that may actually work. I wonder if they
still have
youtube
. My hope is that some kid will film it and post it online. I
want to provoke the protesters so they’ll come again. We now know
that the glass can be broken. Surely they can do it again. They
have to.

Then, I’ll find a way to break James
out.

Satisfied with the only plan I’ve come up
with since our attempt to attack the Keepers, I climb out of the
pool and re-dress. There are no towels here so I have to drip-dry.
With my itchy dress back on, I set off with a spring in my step. I
tiptoe around, trying to avoid patches of earth where there is no
grass. There’s nothing more aggravating than taking a shower and
immediately getting muddy feet.

I pass Janice and Greg on my way to the
garden for some lunch. They are fishing and laughing. I am happy
for her, even though I think she’s crazy for accepting her fate as
a prisoner. She looks up from the pond and waves to me. “Hey,
Emma!” she calls.

“
Hey!” I answer in return
with a genuine smile.

“
You okay with fish for
dinner? I’m cooking.” Janice has turned into
Betty Homemaker
since Greg arrived.
She’s completely transformed herself into a 1950’s housewife, the
typical woman of Greg’s era. I can’t imagine changing myself that
much for someone. She seems happy though. Maybe this is her way of
distancing herself from the girl she used to be. Maybe Greg is good
for her after all.

Deciding fish sounds good, and fish that
someone else cooks sounds even better, I agree to join them. “Yeah,
sure. I’ll be there. Thanks!”

I uproot a couple of carrots and pick a
cucumber. I rinse them off with my water pouch and climb into my
hollow under the apple tree to eat. Thankfully, I get to relax and
enjoy the day alone. Auntie Josephine is even quiet today. Once my
belly if full, I fall asleep. I wake just before dinner. I’m
surprised to find that I’m once again hungry.

Glancing over to James’ enclosure before I
head to the fire pit, I see that he is riding his horse, Sue, and
the girls are rocking in chairs on the porch. The other man must be
inside somewhere because I don’t see him. They all look relatively
happy.

I wonder if I should tell James about my
plan. No, I’d have to write it and then the Keepers could find out.
Best to keep him out of it. I don’t want him to get punished along
with me.

However, I decide that before I head off to
sleep, I’m going to give my enclosure-mates a heads up. I want them
to know that we might get an opportunity to get out of here. But
I’m not going to tell them how I’m going to achieve that. I don’t
want them getting reprimanded along with me either. No sense in
more than one of us taking the fall.

As I approach the small
group sitting around the fire pit, I think,
let’s see how they take the news. I hope they’ll be as
excited as I am.

NOT SO MUCH

The meal Janice prepared for us is so
fabulous that I eat every last bite. While I stuff my face, I
notice she hasn’t eaten a thing on her plate. She’s just been
pushing her food around with her fingers. Instead of eating, she’s
been talking about having Greg build a bigger hut for them to live
in—one that they can actually stand up in.

“
Not hungry, Janice?” I
ask her.

“
Hmm?” She glances down at
the oversized leaf that holds her food. A full piece of fish and
most of her vegetables are remaining. “Oh, yeah. I haven’t been
feeling well the past couple of days.”

Greg pats her hand, and she gives him a
waning smile in return. Kale looks back and forth between the three
of us, as he helps himself to seconds.

Now’s as good a time as any, I guess. “Well,
I have some news that might make you feel better. Remember the
protest and how they broke James’ dome?” Janice nods. Greg and Kale
weren’t there so they patiently wait for me to continue with my
story. “Well, I might have a way to get the protestors to do that
again, but on our dome. If the glass breaks, we could escape. We’d
blend right in with all the random people that come here. You’ve
seen how they all dress. They’d never know us from each other . . .
” Janice is shaking her head and my words die on my tongue.

“
What? What’s wrong?” I
ask her. I’m worried she knows something that I don’t.

Janice starts to cry. Greg wipes away the
tears that slide down her cheeks. In between sobs, Janice says, “I
don’t want to escape. I can’t.”

I’m flabbergasted. “What? Why not?”

“
I want to be here. I want
to be with Greg.”

“
Janice, Greg can come
with us, you know?”

She responds with conviction, “No, Emma. I
realize now that this new life has saved me. I want to be here. I
can’t go back to who I was before. I won’t. I have someone else to
think about now.”

“
I’m sure Greg will love
you no matter where you live.”

Janice blurts out, “Emma, I think I’m
pregnant. I can’t run away with you.”

“
Pregnant?” I’m at a loss
for words. Of course, if they are having sex, she’s eventually
going to get pregnant. I know about the birds and the bees, and
there aren’t condoms growing on the trees here or anything. But
wow, I didn’t expect it so soon.

Greg says, “We aren’t 100% sure, but the
timing is right, and Janice has gotten sick a couple of times.
Sorry, Emma.”

“
Janice, I can’t stay
here. I have to keep trying. I hope you’ll understand.” I look over
to Kale. He hasn’t said a word thus far, but he’s stopped eating
and is staring at us like we all have two heads. “And what about
you? Are you pregnant too? Or are you going to keep trying to get
out of here like me?”

Kale rubs his hands back and forth over his
short hair as he snaps out of his stupor and considers how to
answer. “I’ll go if you go. Nothing to stay here for,” he says.

I nod in approval. Good. At least someone
here has his head screwed on straight. That is, when he’s not being
a stalker.

I turn back to Janice. “I can’t believe it.
I never expected you’d want to stay.” I’m truly going to miss her.
Janice has become a vital person in my life, but one I knew I’d
leave one day. If everything goes as planned, that is. Maybe that’s
why it’s been so easy to keep my distance since Greg got here. I’m
already subconsciously trying to dissolve the friendship that we
made while we were alone.

She says, “Things change, Emma. And for me,
it’s been for the better. I have a chance to be somebody other than
. . . ” she considers her words before she continues with, “who I
used to be. I have a second chance at life to do things the right
way. I have hope now.”

“
I know, Janice. I’m happy
for you. It’s just a path that I can’t take,” I say. When she
smiles, I know we understand each other.

And there’s that word
again.
Hope.

I have hope too. Hope for my freedom.

SUNDAY

I wake up in my shallow hollow under the
apple tree. It’s dark when I feel like the sun should have been up
for hours, and there’s a musty smell that is familiar. That’s odd.
I reach my hand out to pull myself out of the hole. It smacks into
something hard. Then I notice little specks of light filtering in
through tiny holes that are randomly spaced around me. I recognize
this now. I’m in my hut. Someone moved my hut over me while I was
sleeping.

Janice probably felt bad and had Greg move
it for me. That was nice of her, but Kale won’t be happy since he’s
been sleeping in it.

Outside, the sun is, in fact, directly
overhead. I am pleased that I missed the Keepers’ inspection. I
reach my arms up to the sky and stretch away the stiffness from my
long rest. It’s only when Kale whistles that I realize my dress
rose up along with my reach. I hurriedly push it back down as I
spin around to see him sitting along the rock wall enjoying the
view—of my ass.

“
Why are you always
hovering behind me? Knock it off!” I scold him.

“
Just wanted to see how
you enjoyed your night, Princess.” Kale responds.

“
My night?”

“
Well, I see that your hut
is here now, instead of by the love birds.”

I glance back toward my shabby hut and admit
I am grateful for not having to sleep near them anymore. “They’re
probably as happy as I am to have some privacy. Well, as much as
one can in this place. Sorry to take it back from you. I guess I
need to go thank Greg for moving it. Do you know where I can find
him?”

“
Um. Well, they’re
obviously not out here. So my guess would be that he’s probably
back in the jungle,” he answers a little rudely. Then, he turns his
attention to his apple and takes an angry bite out of it. Juice
runs down his chin.

“
Thanks,” I mumble. I
guess he really is mad that they moved it over here for
me.

After grabbing my own apple, I fill my pouch
with water and then push my way through the jungle’s plant life. I
call out ahead of me, “Knock, knock! Incoming!”

“
We’re over here!” Janice
shouts.

They are sitting with their backs against a
log eating breakfast. Both of them smile at me when I break through
the thick jungle. “What’s with the cheesy grins?” I ask them.
They’re happier than I’ve ever seen them.

Greg nudges Janice with his elbow and
whispers, “You tell her.”

Janice giggles in response and then looks
back over to me with a goofy smile. She climbs to her feet and
bounces over to me. She grabs my hands in hers and says, “We’re
pregnant!” Then she swallows me up in a hug and bounces both of us
up and down as she squeals.

I awkwardly hug her back and manage to say
to them both, “Congratulations . . . but how do you know that? You
just told me it was too early to tell.”

Greg answers instead of Janice, “The Keepers
told us when they did their rounds. I guess they saw the fetus when
they scanned her.” Janice takes Greg’s hand as she sits back down
next to him. She leans into him with a look of pure joy on her
face.

“
The Keepers? I can’t
believe I didn’t hear them come today. I must have been sleeping
pretty hard. They scanned me in my hut without me knowing.” I
scratch the side of my head like some confused cartoon character.
How did I not hear them? I guess they really don’t make a lot of
noise. But it’s still weird.

Janice and Greg are making
out now, consumed with the excitement of Janice’s pregnancy.
Time to go.
“Uh, well,
congrats again guys.” As I start making my way back through the
jungle, I remember that I need to thank Greg for moving my hut.
“Oh, hey Greg. Thanks for moving my hut,” I call back over my
shoulder.

All I hear in response is
a couple of muffled somethings and a moan.
Gross
.

THE WRITING’S ON THE WALL

I wake up early, before the sun has risen,
and sneak over to the waterfall to fill my water pouch. Kale, the
stalker, is sleeping near my hut, but closer to the rock wall. He
doesn’t hear me leave or hear me when I pass back by on my way to
the glass wall. I crouch down next to the glass and dig a hole in
the dirt with my fingers. Brown filth gets caked under my
fingernails, but I don’t care. I keep digging until I have a big
enough hole to hold my entire pouch of water.

I mix in some of the discarded dirt until I
have a thick, creamy mud that is just the right consistency to
write on the glass dome. And I have enough here to write something
really big. This is my plan. Time to start.

I’ll think about the repercussions
later.

Each letter I make is
bigger than me, and when I finish, my arms ache. I step back to
admire my work now that the sun is up. This is what I see:
HELP US! FREE US!
, but
backwards, of course. Behind the words, I see James across the
walkway waving his hands in the air and shaking his head. He’s
motioning for me to wash the words away before the Keepers see
them. I shake my head no.

The gates to the park must
have opened because the first groups of people stream in. They
crowd around our enclosure and whisper to each other. I muster up
the courage to boldly stand there, next to my words, with
mud-covered hands. Like Kale said,
what do
I have to lose?

Then I see what I wanted
to see. A young boy in the background is holding up his index
finger. It’s glowing blue just under the surface of his
skin.
I hope that’s a camera.
And then a woman wearing a scarlet ball gown
lifts her finger high in the air. It glows blue as well. Several
more blue fingers light up within the crowd, and I realize this
must be a good sign.

It doesn’t take the zoo authorities long to
catch on to my bad behavior. Water runs down the glass from some
unseen source. It washes away my pleas. The brown mud streaks down
the glass like dirty tears, until they are no more. Then, the glass
darkens slightly. The public begins to disperse, save for a few
with the blue fingers. They must not be able to see into our
enclosure anymore.

Across the walkway, James has his hands
pressed to the glass. His eyes are roaming the entire enclosure,
searching for something he can’t see. I can’t stand here worrying
about him, worrying about me. I rush to the pond to wash my hands
off before the Keepers come in. I don’t make it in time. They are
already heading toward me. One of them has a syringe in his hand
with my name on it.