CHAPTER 6 “A Trip to the Zoo”
Thursday 21 July 2811
I hiked alone against a strong wind across a rocky, hilly island with monstrous ocean waves thrusting, exploding against jagged rocks and dampening my clothes. I struggled up and down the steep trail and clambered over boulders in the cold wind. Finally, I reached a low-lying concrete and glass building that commanded a view out over the churning ocean. As soon as I entered, men in beards and women in formal dress approached to welcome me; they were so glad to see me and deferred to me as though I were royalty. ¿Are they mistaking me for someone else? ¿What are they expecting of me?
My e-pad’s alarm brought me out of the dream.
It was beginning to get light outside. I got dressed quietly so as to not wake mom. Checking my appearance in the mirror, I liked what I saw; a very attractive and stylishly dressed young woman. Except the blouse was wrong, so I exchanged it for a white one that better accentuated my boobs.
I tore the note I’d written last night from my writing tablet and carried it into the kitchen and placed it on the table. I heated a breakfast wrap, brewed a coffee, unfolded my e-pad, and scanned the news for anything of interest as I ate. There wasn’t much new about Dr. Esteban’s killing and nothing was mentioned about his involvement with the Trillium project.
I put together a sandwich and pried a ripe banana off the bunch that sat in a shallow bowl on the kitchen counter. With the food and the usual stuff in my bag, I quietly stepped out into the hallway and took the down-elevator to the ground floor.
I wasn’t entirely sure where all I wanted to go but I did have a couple of goals in mind. I wanted to like brush up against, feel, and smell plants and trees and flowers and animals – like farm animals, pet animals, or zoo animals. You can’t do that in space.
And I wanted to get laid.
I climbed into an empty street pod in front of our building, latched the door, touched the back of my hand to the sensor, and told it, “Shakespeare LeviTrain station.” The map zoomed out and then zoomed back in on a red blinking circle a few kilometers away.
I tapped the red circle. It turned to green and the pod began moving as soon as I buckled the safety belt. Normally, I would text friends, scan the web, or do homework while riding in a pod, but this time I simply watched the world stream past. Pedestrians, pods, bicycles, and delivery vans were already going about their morning business. Three people were jogging together along the strip park. I saw a vegetable shop owner arranging fruit in bins on the sidewalk – a quotidian task that probably dates back millennia.
As we drew nearer to the city center, buildings no taller than 20 or 40 stories gave way to skyscrapers ten times that height. Business attire and an occasional haute couture outfit replaced the casual clothes worn by the pedestrians and shopkeepers closer to home.
My street pod queued up with other pods in the last block approaching the station. Then it turned into a space that was waiting for it, the buckle clicked, and the door swung open. “Shakespeare LeviTrain station,” the pod announced.
Minutes later I sat comfortably in a LeviTrain and again watched the world pass by, but at a significantly higher velocity. The train car was nearly empty since it was leaving, not approaching, the city center at rush hour. I got off at Zoo Station and decided to walk the remaining kilometer to the zoo entrance rather than take a shuttle.
The day was already noticeably warmer. The phrase, “Stop and smell the roses,” echoed in my head and I did exactly that along the way. I plucked a large yellow rose petal and popped it on my lips. In addition to a few roses, there were cyclamens, geraniums, lilies, and many I couldn’t name. I pulled a snail off of the stem of a lily and watched it retreat into its shell and pull its operculum into place for protection. I gently put it back down next to the lily plant.
I spotted a public drinking fountain alongside the sidewalk and went straight there; its flowing water was cool, fresh, and welcome.
The juniper hedges a little farther on were decorated with fine spider silk, but the spiders themselves were well-hidden. I plucked a juniper berry and rolled that tiny bit of greenery hard between thumb and forefinger to pry free its pungent aroma for my nose. Yellow oxalis blossoms brilliantly adorned the front garden of one poorly maintained apartment building. I pulled up an oxalis stem and chewed on it, enjoying the sweet and acidic taste.
The children’s section of the zoo featured a petting area and that’s exactly where I went first. But as I quickly learned, none of the animals – mostly sheep and goats – wanted to be petted; they only wanted zoo kibble – for sale from vending machines. We compromised. I bought a measure of kibble and held a few pieces in my hand up against my waist. This forced them to come up close to vacuum up the kibble with tongue and lips. That gave me the opportunity to stroke and scratch their heads for a moment or two before they licked my palm clean and left to search for their next kibble-provider.
One of the larger goats finished the kibble and without warning butted me hard, sending me straight back on my ass. The cantankerous goat ambled away slowly as I collected the little pack of facial tissues that fell out of my bag. Before I could stand, I was bodily lifted up and placed on my feet by someone from behind.
“There you go, girl. Castor does that almost every ….” The uniformed zoo employee stopped as I turned toward him. “Oh, you’re hardly a girl.”
“Well, I’m hardly a boy.”
“I mean I thought you were maybe ten years-old until I saw your … your….”
“¿My features?”
“Yeah.” His face flushed pink.
He was maybe 20. He was cute in his uniform. It occurred to me there was a decent chance my goals would be met today.
The silence sat uncomfortably. Finally, I blurted out, “Hey, maybe you could help me.”
“¿How’s that?”
“I want to like actually pet these damn animals, you know, but like all they want is that fucking kibble. Like I mean, this is a petting zoo here.”
“That’s a fair request. It’s just that you came when these guys are at their hungriest.”
Again, an awkward silence.
“I’m Caleb and the petting zoo is my morning assignment. I can introduce you to some of the animals that are taking time off from the confusion out here. I’ve already fed the ones that are vacationing this morning.”
I noticed that he couldn’t keep his eyes locked on mine. He kept glancing down toward my chest.
“Hi. I’m Esty. ¿You say vacationing? ¿How’s that?”
“Just means we don’t put them out here in the petting paddock. A couple are pretty pregnant, and we’ve got some kids that were born last weekend. And there’s a ewe that seems to have some sort of sinusitis. Snot’s flowing out her nose. We probably ought not to hassle her. Come on. Let’s go visit Samantha.”
He led me into an enclosure with an enormous black and pink hog. She let me put my cheek on her cheek and on the side of her enormous pregnant body. I ran my fingers over her warm skin with its bristly hair as I inhaled air redolent with her alien odor. Abruptly Samantha snorted; nearly scared the crap out of me.
“Come on. I think she’s reached her limit for now. ¿How would you like to hold a lamb in your arms? Follow me.”
As we passed through a security gate, several sheep and tiny lambs rushed up to us. Without pausing, Caleb swept up one of the lambs and turned to me.
“Put one arm under its butt and the other under its front shoulders like I’m doing.”
Taking a deep breath, I did as he instructed. It was surprisingly light. The lamb kept looking around as if to say, ‘Huh. ¿What’s this all about?’ Then it stared directly into my face and licked me from my chin up over my nose and over my left eye. I almost dropped it. I swiftly put it back on the ground and wiped spittle off my face with my sleeves.
“She likes you,” Caleb chortled. “Well, come on. I’ve got to get back to the paddock before Castro decks more brats … I mean visitors.”
In a matter of seconds we were back to the chaos of the petting paddock.
“¿Esty, why don’t you visit some of the rest of the zoo and meet me back here at eleven when I break for lunch? I could use some company.”
“Yeah. I could do that. I brought a bag lunch with me. Thanks for the invite. See you at eleven.”
I turned and headed straight for the restrooms to clean up. I washed my face until it felt purged of lamb spit. My white blouse was badly stained with smudges of dirt and lamb shit. I removed the blouse and using hand soap and water, I reduced the worst smudges to faint smears, but now my blouse was mostly wet and see-through. ¿So what? I donned the blouse and went back out into the sunlight with the knowledge that it would certainly be dry well before eleven o’clock.
I snarled at the tigers and I whooped with the siamangs. I had a staring contest with an anaconda and I chatted with an elephant. I whistled with conures and I cupped the beak of a Pacific White-Sided Dolphin in my hand.
I came across a group of peahens and fooled one into thinking I had some food in my hand. She approached hesitantly, stopped, and waited for me to show her the goods. After a few moments, she slowly retreated and continued foraging for fries and chips lying around. Then I noticed an approaching peacock lifting and spreading his tail feathers. His behavior must have been for the benefit of the hens, but from where I stood, the sun revealed the incredible iridescence of his magnificent feathers. He approached, making it obvious that his erect display towered much higher than my head. The air began thrumming with the vibrations of those gorgeous feathers. The effect held me motionless; it was as though he hypnotized me. I swear he could have had his way with me at that moment. The thrumming stopped; he slowly lowered his tail feathers until they again became an absurdly long and elegant train trailing behind him. The trance was broken but I was still tingling all over.
Caleb greeted me with, “Hey, there’s that miniature woman again.” He then turned and called out, “Hey Laura. It’s all yours. I’m going for lunch.”
As we walked along, Caleb told me, “I’ve figured this all out. You got accidentally exposed to an experimental kind of radiation and it’s causing you to shrink. By tomorrow, I’d best be careful where I step.”
I whacked him with my bag.
He led us to a picnic bench shaded by an elm. Caleb suddenly had a sandwich in his hand and started to eat. I didn’t see him pull it from one of his pockets, but he must have.
Between bites he said, “Sorry about all the crap that got on your blouse. I see you got it mostly cleaned-up.”
“Yeah. But you must have known I’d like get lamb shit on my pristine white blouse before you handed me that kid.”
“Yup.”
“¿So, you were being mean?”
“To be honest, I wanted to see how you’d react. Too prissy and I wouldn’t of invited you for lunch.”
“¿You like only want girls who can take your crap?”
“Not my crap. Lamb crap.”
I laughed.
After eating, we had the run of the entire zoo in the afternoon when his job was to roam, answer questions, pick up trash, and keep alert for the sorts of problems that occur in zoos. It wasn’t long before we heard a screaming kid near the fishing cat enclosure, so we trotted over to find that a toddler had fallen down and now had goose poop covering half his face. Caleb pulled out moist wipes from seemingly nowhere and started cleaning as he and the parents talked the boy down from his misery. When they finished cleaning and calming him, Caleb produced a lollipop – again from nowhere – which the boy took greedily.
When we got to the siamang enclosure, I reprised my whooping performance and was joined by Caleb and 2 of the gibbons.
He took me behind several of the exhibits to see newborn porcupines, a lion that was badly scratched by one of the others, and eggs of various sizes and colors in the incubator.
From one of the zoo’s sky trams we had a bird’s eye view of giraffes, wildebeests, antelope, and zebras wandering across a miniature savannah. I also had the pleasure of sitting tightly at Caleb’s side.
As we walked away from the sky tram terminus, Caleb said, “Hey come on. We can catch the other sky tram on the other side of the plaza. It’ll take us over polar bears, seals, and hippos.”
“OK. Sure.”
On the way, Caleb asked, “¿Why did the chicken cross the road?”
“To get to the other side, Caleb. ¿Why the hell do you ask?”
Unperturbed, he asked, “¿Why did we cross the plaza?”
“Well, to get to the other … ride.” I whacked him again.
Again, he continued, “¿Why did the lion cross the savannah?”
“OK, but this is the last time,” I told him. “Well, to get to the other … other … other pride!”
Caleb caught my bag before it hit him and pulled me over close as we queued up for the second sky tram.
Later on, he helped me pick up and hold a remarkably large stick insect in the Insect House, one of my most favorite places in the entire zoo.
And then he was off work.
With no discussion about what either of us wished to do, we walked out of the zoo entrance and headed in the opposite direction from the LeviTrain station.
“¿How long have you worked at the zoo?”
“Oh, this is my second summer I’ve worked here. I’m taking courses in agricultural history at Ohio State University. They’ve got some really great professors and I’m particularly interested in the tremendous changes in land use starting in the 22nd century. ¿Did you know that Lake Sacramento used to be agricultural land?”
“Yeah. We studied a little about that.”
Caleb continued, “What’s fascinating is how weather patterns and land use have changed over these centuries. So many theories and climate models turned out to be junk but a few got it right.”
He looked over (and down) at me, “¿And Esty, where do you go to school?”
“I’m a senior at Westerville High,” I lied. Westerville was on the opposite side of Columbus from Sagerston but I wanted to be sure that I could cleanly take myself out of his life. “I like math and psychology but I’m not certain I’ll immediately go to a college when I finish high school.”
“Well, Esty. ¿Do I need to worry about your boyfriend pounding me into the ground if we get some ice cream here?”
He stopped. I turned to see that we indeed were in front of an ice cream parlor. I answered, “Not so much. ¿What about getting my eyes scratched out by a girlfriend?”
“¿Nooshan? Not likely. She’s in Iran.”
“¿What? So just like that you’ll date the first girl midget that Castor knocks on her butt and Nooshan will be like none the wiser? Sounds pretty creepy to me.”
“Honestly, she and I date others and it hasn’t resulted in any homicides … yet.”
With as much sarcasm as I could muster, I said, “Oh that’s reassuring.”
“Let’s talk about it over ice cream.”
We went in and as usual, there were too many choices. Finally, I picked the mango-pineapple sorbet and Caleb chose a fudge ripple with caramel sauce. I let him pay for it and we sat down with our bowls at a table near the window.
“¿Esty, have you ever had brain-freeze? I used to when I was little.”
“Likewise, but not since I was little … OK … let me correct that. Not since I was younger. ¿But we should try, don’t you think?”
“OK”
We spent the next minute shoveling ice cream in our mouths and giggling; but no brain-freeze.
“So, you still haven’t told me why you were feeling up the zoo animals.”
“I was not feeling them up. I was like just feeling them. There’s a difference … in case you didn’t know.”
Caleb blushed a bit and corrected himself. “That’s what I meant. You were really getting into touching and feeling and all.”
“I’m taking a trip soon where there won’t be animals around.”
“¿But isn’t your high school about to start?”
Rather than dig myself deeper in lies, I answered, “Take my word for it. I don’t want to go into specifics but I’m planning on going on a long trip and I won’t be able to bring any pets.”
“¿Going to the Antarctic?”
“Caleb, I don’t want to go into specifics.”
“I’m OK with that. A woman of mystery, to be sure. You haven’t even told me your last name. Ah, I’ll bet you’re a paid killer on your way to the Antarctic to assassinate Santa Claus.”
“Bad guess. Santa lives in the Arctic, what’s left of it; not the Antarctic. Besides there is no Santa Claus.”
“Ah. So, you’ve already killed him off. Very slick.”
We finished our ice cream and stepped back out into the fierce hot sunshine. As I pulled my sunglasses out of my pack, a man sitting on a sidewalk bench caught my attention. “Caleb,” I whispered and nodded my head in the direction of the bench. “¿Wasn’t that guy at the zoo entrance when we left?”
“Huh? Dunno. ¿You worried that Santa’s elves hired a hitman to take you out?”
I punched Caleb in the ribs and steered him down the sidewalk.
Caleb led us to Grayson Park where a band was playing a free concert. We found a good spot on the grass in the shade of a tree between a mother who was nursing her infant and a couple of teenagers who were alternately making out and carping at each other. We sat quietly for a long time listening to the music.
I didn’t remember falling asleep but the next thing I knew was that I woke up with Caleb lightly touching my hair. He lowered his face to mine and kissed me. I eagerly pulled him down against me and did my best to give him hot sensuous kisses in return, but I felt like such a clumsy amateur. I fretted that he was more amused by my efforts than turned on. We continued kissing and embracing and repositioning ourselves trying to stay comfortable on the grass until my tongue was sore, so I pushed him back and breathily said, “Wow,” even though I didn’t feel all that “wow.”
Some while later I drifted off to sleep again but this time with my head on his left arm and his left hand resting on my hip.
“Esty, wake up. That man you pointed out is here. Don’t look just yet. He’s on the bleachers near the food booth.”
Frightened, I scanned the branches of the tree above us, looking for a crow drone, or hawk, or buzzard, or whatever.
“OK. He’s looking the other way.”
It was the same man. As I watched, he rose and began walking in the opposite direction. We stayed still until he was a hundred meters away and went out of sight.
“That’s freaky,” I said.
“Yeah. Coincidence, I suppose,” Caleb offered, but not very convincingly. “Let’s go get some dinner. I know a great place for turkey burgers.”
Tom’s Turkey Burgers was a busy little café on the street bordering the south end of the park. We stood in line and placed our order. We shared the cost and took our burgers and fries to a small table near the door.
When Caleb took the first bite into his burger, his face turned questioning, and then his chest convulsed. He was about to vomit. He dropped the burger back on his plate, cupped both hands to his mouth, but instead of upchucking, he pulled out a large white feather. I was stunned. ¿How the fuck did a turkey feather get into a turkey burger? A moment later I threw a couple of fries at him for that trick. He fooled me, but damn, it was funny.
We chatted about holovideos we’d seen recently as we munched on our burgers washed down with milk. When we finished and cleared our dishes, I made a point of holding his hand as we stepped out onto the sidewalk. Looking around, I half expected to see the same man or a crow drone homing in on me. What I did see was a large black bird perched on a streetlight about 30 meters away. As if in a nightmare, it jumped from the streetlight and flew straight toward us.
“Caleb,” I yelled. “Back into the café! Assassin drone!” I yanked his hand as I scrambled to get back through the door.
A concussive maelstrom of superheated gases blasted outward tossing Estrella and Caleb like rag dolls.