The Zoo (2)
"Eat up, giraffes."
I tore open the package of sliced bread and handed the pieces out one by one. The giraffes didn't so much as glance at the food anyone else was offering. They clung to me alone.
There were so many of them, though, that the bread vanished at a frightening pace. Swallowing my disappointment, I stroked a giraffe's face and said,
"You can go to the other people too, all right?"
As if they had understood me, the giraffes scattered in a single coordinated wave and began eating what the visitors held out. I watched, thoroughly pleased. This was the real fun of a zoo — the greatest advantage of all, feeding the animals yourself, vivid and close. It was something you could never imagine through a television or a phone. Spending time in true communion with them was a joy all its own, wasn't it?
I'd seen enough of the giraffes, so I went looking for the other animals. I didn't forget to take Haru's hand. If she lost her grip and I ended up a lost child, that would be a disaster.
"Hana, where are you going?"
"Penguins! Let's go see the penguins!"
"You don't have to rush like that."
"But I want to!"
The thought that every second and every minute at the zoo was slipping away made me impatient. It felt like a timed run. There were simply too many animals I wanted to see. We could always come again, of course, but since we were already here, wouldn't it be better to see as many as we could?
Penguins were every bit as popular as the giraffes. Small bodies, that adorable waddle, and faces you couldn't help but like — you rarely met anyone who disliked them.
I slipped through the crowd, and there they were. The penguins lived inside a building. Unlike the giraffes out in the open, they needed the air kept reasonably cool, so it couldn't be helped. The day was cold enough now that going outside wouldn't have mattered, but once summer arrived, that would be another story entirely.
Watching them toddle along put me in a good mood. Haru, beside me, seemed to feel the same.
"Oh my... they're too cute. Not as cute as Hana, but still..."
With that, Haru pulled out her phone and started filming them. I watched the penguins walk with my own eyes. After a little while, though, that same spot over my heart began to itch and tingle, just as it had before.
Then, as if they had all agreed on it, the penguins bunched together and set off somewhere. Their destination was precisely where I stood. Packed in front of me, they flapped their flippers and cried out in delight, as though welcoming the fact that I had come.
"Oh my! Look at the penguins flapping their wings!"
"Mom! I want a picture too!"
The people around me, faced with a sight you didn't often see, had their phones out and were filming the penguins' chorus line. I watched them with a pleased smile. If there hadn't been a fence between us, they might well have broken right out.
I kept that smile as I looked at them. Penguins really were cute. The keeper who cared for them, though, was watching this way with a troubled face, as if the timing couldn't have been worse.
It was feeding time, and every penguin had crowded around me alone.
Weren't these guys hungry at all? No matter how much they liked me, they still ought to eat before they went wandering off. The keeper waved sardines to tempt them, but they showed no intention of leaving my side. What if I were the one to give them the fish?
I told Haru what I was thinking.
"Haru, can't I go in there? I want to feed the penguins sardines!"
Haru answered as if turning it over.
"Hmm... this zoo belongs to the Starlight Guild too. Say the right words, and they'll probably let you in as a one-day hands-on visit."
Which meant, in the end, that it could be done. Haru walked around to the back of the exhibit, exchanged a few words, and before long the okay came through. There weren't nearly as many people as there had been by the giraffes, so walking was easy.
"All right — this, and these! Put them on before you go in!"
The keeper pressed boots and an assortment of work clothes into my arms. I pulled them on over what I was already wearing. Dressed like that, I looked every bit the proper zookeeper.
Heheh!
Feeling my confidence surge, I headed for the penguins. The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, the scattered birds gathered around me in perfect order, fast as soldiers snapping into formation.
"A-byo-byo-byo-byo!"
Each of them let out its own peculiar cry as they circled me. Not a single penguin remained near the keeper who had come in to watch over me. They must have lived with him like family, and yet they had unmistakably fallen for my charm.
For some reason his shoulders seemed to droop, as if all the spirit had gone out of him... I was probably just imagining it.
I set the bucket the keeper had given me — packed full of sardines — down on the ground. It was so full that it landed with a heavy thud. There were a lot of penguins, sure, but did they really need this much food?
I shook off the idle question and pulled out a single sardine to offer them. The chaos around me, though, made my head spin. They already looked identical, and with them swirling around me I couldn't tell one from another. At this rate, some penguin was going to hog every last fish.
Get in line! Line up!!!
I had only thought it — at the penguins milling about with no order whatsoever — when something astonishing happened. As if they had understood the words inside my heart, they began lining up in perfect unison. The visitors watching were so stunned by the unbelievable sight that they clapped their hands over their mouths.
"No way — those penguins are lining up!"
"They're acting just like people..."
"Picture! Take a picture!"
The visitors buzzed with excitement over the wondrous penguins. I decided, first of all, to reward the ones who had lined up so nicely. I drew a sardine from the bucket and slipped it into the beak of a penguin waiting with its mouth open. The bird that had happily eaten it waddled off, then snapped smartly back into place at the very end of the line.
It was an astonishing sight. Post it online and the views would be a sure thing. One ate a sardine and went straight to the back; the whole procession was perfectly disciplined.
I stroked their heads as I handed out the fish. They must have been pleased — every time I petted one, it let out a joyful little roar.
Flap, flap!
The penguin that had just eaten a single sardine was beating its flippers with all its might. It was so happy that my own mood rose right along with it, as if the feeling were contagious. It felt as though the penguins' hearts and mine were becoming one.
I kept feeding them until every sardine in the bucket was gone. Being a zookeeper, I thought, might actually be fun.
"Mmmnya... mmmnya..."
Haru smiled softly at Hana, asleep in the passenger seat. She had been moving with such excitement, such energy... and yet after what amounted to running around the zoo all day, her strength had given out, and she had dropped into sleep the moment she climbed into the car.
With classical music playing, Haru turned over the one new thing she had learned about Hana today. The girl's affinity with animals was extraordinarily high. No — not merely high. Hana was like a mother to them.
She had felt the first strange sign with the giraffes. Then the penguins, the lions, the tigers, and all the rest — every last one of them obeyed Hana readily and behaved with remarkable intimacy. To put it bluntly, they ignored keepers who had raised them since they were young and followed Hana instead. Affection like that didn't even make sense.
They even seemed to understand her words to some degree; whenever she gave a command, they carried it out faithfully. Haru had seen Hana's abilities before, but glimpsing yet another new side of her stirred a quiet sense of wonder.
Playing with her today had been wonderful fun, too. When the giraffes had first carried her off, Haru's heart had dropped straight through her. Tens of thousands of people were after Hana, after all. Still, it was a mercy that she had the artifact Kim Sehee had given them last time — the one that warded off physical harm.
Without that equipment, it would have been difficult for Hana to go outside at all. The instant she suffered so much as a scratch or any harm at all, the losses would be catastrophic.
For now, of course, Hana was still in the stage of adapting to modern society, so things proceeded easily enough. Later, once she had gathered sufficient knowledge, whether she founded her own company and struck out on her own, or sold her hair on even better terms — that would be Hana's decision to make.
Whatever choice she made, Haru meant to cheer her on from behind. She reached out and caught the sleeping girl's cheek in her hand. Those cheeks, stretching and stretching under her fingers, were dangerously addictive.