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“Eaton.” Shelby stares at me with a look of excitement on her face. “Is that where we’re going?
I nod. “Los Angeles zoo.”
Tears start to form in Shelby’s eyes. They tumble down her cheeks as the helicopter lands, and the rotors are switched off. I remove her headphones so we can talk normally.
“Why the tears?”
“Because I can’t believe you’ve brought me here. I’ve never been to a zoo before. I could never afford to go.” She wipes at her tears, but they continue to fall. I’m just glad they are happy ones.
“Then we’re going to have a really good day because I’ve never been here before either.”
27
SHELBY
“His name is CJ. He’s a Sumatran tiger, one of the most endangered subspecies of tiger in the world.” Shelby reads from the sign explaining about the tiger in front of us. “He’s ten years old and is the smallest of the tigers. I had a friend growing up called CJ. Her real name was Cara Jane. She was always making up stories and writing them down. We lost touch. I hope wherever she is she’s still telling her stories about wild animals that turn into humans.”
“He’s very powerful,” Max says, putting his arm around Lena’s shoulders as we all stand and stare at the tiger.
“He’s not as powerful as Eaton in his designer shorts.” Lena laughs.
“I’m never going to live this outfit down, am I?” Eaton scoffs.
“I think you look good in it.” I take his hand and squeeze it. “Oh! Fun fact, did you know that tigers have antiseptic saliva. So next time you get a cut you should go looking for a tiger.”
“I think I’d rather not.” Eaton chuckles.
“Spoilsport,” I counter with my own laugh.
I’ve never been to a place like this before. I can’t believe I’m here. I’m trying to take in as many details about the animals as I can. Eaton has even given me a camera so I can take pictures of them. I’m already planning to make a notebook from the pictures and hope to research as much as I can about the animals. The big cats are my favorite. They are so majestic. My mind goes to Betty. I hope she’s finding food somewhere. Maybe Eaton would allow me to get my own cat one day.
“We need to go.” Eaton looks at his watch and takes my hand.
“Leave already?” I’m sure we’ve only been here an hour. It can’t be time to go yet.
“No, don’t worry. We’re not leaving. I’ve got another surprise for you.”
We all follow Eaton through the zoo to what I can see is the medical center.
“They don’t normally allow people in here, but they’ve made an exception for us. Max, Lena, you can go explore for a bit if you want. I’m afraid it’s just for us two.”
“Don’t worry.” Max nods. “Call me when you need us to come back.”
The couple I’ve now come to think of as friends walk off together. I think it must be nice for them to spend the day together. With Max being at Eaton’s side most of the time, the couple are often apart.
“I can’t believe we’re going to do this.” I’m almost jumping up and down with excitement as we enter the large medical building.
“I hope you’re going to enjoy this. I’ve been told they have some very sick animals here. I don’t want you to get upset.”
“I won’t. I’ll be concerned and want to help them.”
A man stands in the lobby. He’s dressed in scrubs.
“Hi, my name is Ian. I’m the director of medicine here at the zoo. It’s lovely to meet you both. Please come this way, and we’ll have a look at some of our patients.”
We follow him through the building to the medical wards. We’re led to a cage holding a meerkat. He looks very young. Ian takes him out and carries him into an examination room while we follow on behind. The meerkat is lethargic and looks thin.
“We had this little one brought in this morning. It’s particularly worrying because he is so young, and some of the other meerkats are showing similar symptoms,” Ian explains.
