The Secret Zoo (3 page)

A
t school the next day, Noah could barely function. At lunchtime, he took a seat at the end of a long table in the cafeteria and waited for his friends. He slouched over his tray and picked through his food as if he expected to find something buried in it. Around him, kids behaved in their normal fashion: laughing, hollering, and launching corn with their plastic spoon catapults.

A girl plopped down on the bench in front of him. She landed so hard that she shook the Tater Tot off Becky Prebee's spork at the far end of the bench. The girl was
Ella Jones, Noah's lifelong friend and fellow Action Scout.

Noah looked up from his meal and stared at her blankly.

“What's up?” she asked as she crunched down on an apple, spraying droplets of juice for which she saw no need to apologize. When Noah didn't respond, she added, “Cat got your tongue?” Because she was talking through a mouthful of food, her question sounded like “Cagotyoton?”—as if she were speaking some foreign language.

Noah said coldly, “Nice manners. Shouldn't you be eating off the floor?”

Ella chuckled. “Ha! Woof-woof!” Through another mouthful of food, she said something else that Noah couldn't understand. It sounded remarkably like “I have a toad in my shoe.”

“Hey, guys!”

Behind him, Noah heard the voice of the third Action Scout. Richie Reynolds approached the table wearing his favorite shirt, a green one with shiny silver snaps. His pockets contained a stash of pens, a pencil, two highlighters, a short ruler, and a penlight. Ella called this stuff Richie's nerd-gear.

Richie stretched his leg over the bench to take a seat. For a second, light reflected off the metallic material in his running shoe, causing colored flecks of light to crawl
across Noah's arm. Richie's running shoes were so flashy and bright and glittery that they were obnoxious. Noah could spot them from the end of a crowded school hall. Richie wore these shoes everywhere—to school, to baseball practice, even to church. When his skinny rear end hit the bench, his oversized eyeglasses shook and became crooked.

Richie pushed his glasses up on his nose, looked at his food, rubbed his hands together, and said, “Mmm…. I can't wait to dig into this.” He prodded through his lunch with a plastic spork. “This—this is…What is this stuff? Chicken?”

“I'm afraid to guess,” Ella said. She peeled a banana and added, “Something's wrong with Noah today.”

“Nothing's wrong,” Noah said, but even he could hear how cold and flat his voice sounded.

“Doesn't sound like nothing's wrong,” Richie replied.

“I didn't sleep well.”

“Why not?”

Noah stared into the ugly mound of food on his tray and avoided the question.

Richie continued to dig through his lunch, trying to determine what category of meat was on the tray.

“Looks like something's been rocking Noah's ark,” Richie said. “Maybe the animals have been keeping him awake.”

Noah coughed up a piece of food. It landed on the table with a
splat
.

“Whoa!” Ella said. She reached across the table and touched his arm, looking concerned.

Richie said, “Sorry, Noah. I was only joking.”

“It's okay. It's just that…”

“Just that what?” Ella asked.

“Nothing.”

“C'mon! How long have we been friends?” she said.

Noah didn't know why, but he was finding it difficult to tell them about the zoo. He reminded himself that he trusted his friends more than anyone else in the world.

He gathered his courage and blurted out, “It's Megan!”

Ella and Richie turned serious. There was no joking between them when the subject was Megan.

“What is it?” Ella asked.

“I—” He stopped and stared into space.

“Noah,” Ella said, “you can tell us anything.”

Knowing that this was true—that these two were the best friends anyone could ever hope for—Noah let his eyes meet Ella's and said, “The animals at the zoo…I think…no…I
know
they have something to do with Megan's disappearance.”

Ella's jaw fell. Richie dropped a piece of the unidentified meat. For a moment, the three of them sat and stared at one another, not knowing what to say next. Then Noah
glanced over both shoulders to make sure no one was watching them.

“Look at this,” he said. “I have to show you something.”

He thrust his hand into his pocket to find Megan's notes.

T
hat afternoon, Noah met Ella and Richie inside the zoo entrance, beside the water fountain. The weather was unusually cold for October. Ella wore fluffy pink earmuffs that looked like big globs of cotton candy stuck to her ears. Richie wore his favorite winter hat, a stocking cap with a ribbed cuff and a large red pom-pom on top. The pom-pom shook whenever Richie moved.

“You guys ready for this?” Noah asked.

Ella winked and smiled at Noah. Richie nodded his head—and his pom-pom.

Ella said, “Let's check out that note again—the one the birds gave you.”

They found a private spot beneath a tree. Noah opened the crumpled paper, and the three children focused on the page. The writing started in the middle of a sentence and the middle of a thought, as it did on the note that Mr. Tall Tail had given him.

Ella turned to Noah and asked, “Did you know she was coming here?”

“Nunh-unh!”

“Those piano lessons she was taking with Ms. Courtney—you know, the ones over the summer—I bet if we check into that—” Ella stopped herself, realizing that she was about to call Megan a liar.

Noah finished her thought, saying, “I bet she can't even play ‘Chopsticks.'”

They exchanged a knowing look and turned their attention back to Megan's note.

The writing ended. Noah turned the paper over. The second side was too smeared to read anything except a few lines:

That was the end of the back of the page.

Richie said, “Wait…the zoo only has two polar bears.”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “And it's only supposed to have fifty birds—not thousands.”

The scouts stood together in silence. The wind blew Megan's note, making it flutter and snap in Noah's hand.

“This is real, isn't it?” Ella asked.

“Yeah,” Noah said. “This is really happening.”

“C'mon,” Richie said as he settled the wiggly pom-pom on his cap. His voice sounded unusually courageous. “Let's go to the tunnel and see how many bears we find.”

They turned and headed deeper into the zoo.

 

Arctic Town was an area of the zoo designed to look like a cold Arctic landscape. From the concession stands to the restrooms, all the buildings were shaped like igloos. Plastic icicles dangled from every ledge, sheets of plastic ice lay across the sidewalks, and signs cautioned visitors,
WATCH FOR ICE ON PATH
! The design had a cool effect in winter, but a rather lame one in summer. Could children believe it was cold when snow cones were melting down their fingers?

In no time, the scouts reached the Polar Pool. Set on an icy-looking landscape, the exhibit had a long, winding inground pool. A flight of narrow stairs descended twenty feet into the earth and led to a glass-walled underwater tunnel, which reached across the middle of the pool.

“Let's go,” Noah said.

They rushed down the stairs and stepped into a glass room that looked into the pool. Though this room had a spectacular view, the real attraction was the tunnel. It started at the room they were in, snaked through the water, and opened into a second glass room at the other end, which was barely visible from here. It was like a hamster's plastic tunnel, but a thousand times larger.

The scouts strolled into the tunnel; they felt as if they were walking directly into the pool. Inside the tunnel, they joined a bunch of kids who were watching Blizzard. The bear was trying to sink an orange barrel with his thick legs, which moved sluggishly through the water. He was enormous. After a while, Frosty started to wrestle with Blizzard. A few minutes passed, and Blizzard swam over the tunnel, casting his shadow over the visitors beneath him. He planted his paw on the glass directly above Richie. It was bigger than Richie's head.

The scouts stared into the tank, hoping to catch sight of something unusual—a third bear, perhaps—but they saw nothing. Noah suggested that it was too early for anything weird to happen. To kill time, they decided to leave the tunnel and have a snack at one of the igloo concession stands upstairs.

On their way, Richie pretended to slip on a patch of fake ice that had spilled across the sidewalk.

“Hey, guys!” he called.
“Whooaaa!”

His arms flailed and the pom-pom on his cap wobbled. About twenty seconds into his routine, he lost his balance and crashed on his butt.

“Richie!” Ella said. “If you don't knock it off, we're gonna put you in with the monkeys.”

Richie climbed to his feet and rubbed his sore rear end.

After wasting an hour, they returned to the Polar Pool, made their way into the tunnel, and waited anxiously for something to happen. Before long, a lady announced through a loudspeaker that the zoo would close in fifteen minutes. Parents collected their children and headed for the exit. Within minutes, the Action Scouts were the only ones left in the tunnel.

“Megan said it happened late in the day,” Noah said. “And that's when all that stuff with the birds happened to me.”

“Yeah,” Ella said.

Frosty and Blizzard swam at one end of the pool, their massive paws deftly slicing the water.

“See anything unusual?” Noah asked.

“Nunh-unh,” Richie said.

The three children stood with their faces pressed against the tunnel wall. Their breath clouded the glass. Silence hung in the air and time passed.

Then, out of nowhere, Richie said, “I got a joke.”

“What?” Ella moaned.

“A joke! I got a joke.”

Without looking away from the pool, Noah said, “Go ahead.”

“Ready?” Richie asked.

“For crying out loud,” Ella said, “stalling isn't going to make it funnier.”

Richie cleared his throat and said, “What's white and furry and shaped like a tooth?”

“What's
what
?”

“What's white…and furry…and shaped like a tooth?”

“I don't know,” Noah said. “What?”

“A molar bear!”

No one laughed. Noah and Ella just stood and peered into the water.

“A molar bear,” Richie repeated. “Don't you guys get it?”

“Of course we get it,” Ella said. “We're just not six anymore.”

“Geez,” Richie said. “I guess—”

“Quiet!” Noah said. “I see something!”

“What? Where?” Richie said.

“Light! I saw light!”

Noah had seen a beam of light inside the pool, but it had come from the bottom of the tank.

“I don't see anything,” Ella said. “Where?”

“It was out there, but only for a second. A ray of light—just like the light that Megan described!” Noah said.

“You sure it wasn't coming from the sky?” Richie asked.

“No, it wasn't!”

The next moment, the scouts heard a high-pitched sound coming from the room behind them—the room they'd entered the tunnel from. It sounded like a big metal door opening. They turned in the direction of the noise.

“What was that?” Ella whispered.

“I don't know,” Noah said. “Maybe someone who works here.”

They pushed away from the glass and tried to act casual. Ella fluffed her ponytail, and Richie ruffled the pom-pom on his cap. The scouts heard another high-pitched sound, followed by the sound of something slamming shut.

“That's too loud to be a normal door,” Richie whispered.

Suddenly, through the layers of glass that formed the winding tunnel, the scouts saw movement. Something had entered the room. Something big. And white.

From where she stood, Ella could see around the corner. A moment later, her face turned pale.

“Uh…guys?”

A new sound filled the exhibit:
wwwrrrooooowwwlll
!

“What is it?” Noah said.

Before she could reply, the head of a huge polar bear emerged at the opening of the tunnel. The bear snarled,
swung its snout from side to side, and fixed its black eyes on the scouts.

Noah tried to say something, but only a flat, meaningless sound came out. “Unnnhhh…”

The bear threw back its head and roared. Its tongue looked like a slab of meat. Its ivory fangs were razor sharp.

Noah glanced into the pool. Only one bear was out there. It was Frosty, the smaller bear, which meant this was Blizzard. Somehow Blizzard had entered the tunnel.

The scouts stood frozen in place. Noah's friends looked like statues with goofy headgear—one with fluffy earmuffs and the other with a stocking cap.

Ella nervously broke the silence, whispering, “Hey, Richie, any good jokes we can tell it?”

“Don't move,” Noah warned. “Just keep perfectly still.”

Blizzard stepped out of the room and into the tunnel. Water dribbled off his fur and formed large puddles on the floor. He closed to within ten feet of the children and rolled his daunting head.

“The room behind us—it has an exit,” Noah said.

“Richie, can we run faster than this thing?” Ella whispered.

“I don't know,” he replied.

Blizzard swung his head around at Noah and growled. Noah carefully eyed the bear. Suddenly a strange calm swept over him.

“Hold on a minute.” He stepped forward and said cautiously, “Blizzard? Um…hi.”

The bear inched down the tunnel.

“What are you
doing
?” Ella asked.

Noah reached out. His hand was trembling. “Shh! This will work,” he said.

Blizzard nudged his head against Noah's open palm. His fur was coarse, wet, and cold. He sniffed Noah's arm, and his coal-black nose left a wet spot on Noah's jacket. Noah realized how massive Blizzard was. His legs were like tree trunks, and his head was as big as a beach ball. Noah stroked Blizzard's crown as the bear sniffed his arm.

“Blizzard,” he said, “do you know who I am? I'm Noah.”

Blizzard growled softly.

“It's okay, guys,” Noah said. “He's here to help us—like the other animals.”

“This is crazy,” Ella said.

Ella and Richie crept forward. When they reached Blizzard, they gingerly placed their palms on his side.

“What's going on?” Richie asked. “How can this be happening?”

“I have no idea,” Noah admitted.

“How did he get in here?”

“There's something in that first room—a door or something. Remember that noise we heard?” Noah said.

“This is like a dream,” Ella said.

In a flash, the entrance door opened, and through the glass walls, Noah detected light from outside filling the staircase. A man was speaking.

“…yeah…yeah. Right. I know. I gotta pick up the…”

Noah could faintly see a zoo employee. He was propping the door open with his hip while he talked to another person nearby.

Blizzard grunted and looked at the scouts. He dropped something from his mouth—a wadded-up ball of paper. Noah scooped it up. It was wet and gooey with spit. He crammed it into his pocket, and Blizzard thundered back down the tunnel. The floor quaked.

“…need to pick up my toolbox,” the zoo attendant was saying. “That's a big headache we got down there. We'll need to…”

When Blizzard reached the end of the tunnel, he turned the corner and disappeared. Seconds later, the scouts heard the loud, high-pitched sound that they'd heard earlier. That was it, then; Blizzard had entered the exhibit through some kind of secret door.

“First I gotta close up the tunnel,” the man continued. “Let me do a walk-through real quick. I'll meet you on the platform.”

The door snapped shut. Through the glass, Noah saw the man approaching.

“Don't say anything,” Noah said. “If Blizzard doesn't trust this guy, we don't, either.”

“Totally,” Ella agreed.

The man turned into the tunnel. When he saw the scouts, he waved his fingertips toward himself and said, “Let's go, kids. I gotta lock up this joint.”

“It's that late already?” Noah asked casually.

“Yeah, yeah. Zoo's closing. C'mon, let's speed it up.”

As the children scurried around the zoo attendant, he glanced at the floor.

“What's this?” he said. “The floor's soaked! What did you kids spill?”

They stood in silence, stunned.

The man lowered his eyebrows and said, “Ahhh, forget it! C'mon, now. The three of ya—get!” He accompanied them up the stairs.

As the scouts were walking off, he said, “Wait!”

Noah turned his head and saw the man's finger pointed at him.

“Don't I know you?”

“Nunh-unh,” Noah replied.

“I'm sure I've seen you before.”

“I doubt it.”

Scratching his chin, the man looked him over. Finally he said, “Yeah, well, whatever. The three of you—get on now.”

As they hurried off, Ella said, “Noah, he knows who you are!”