I felt that things were getting a bit too serious, and all those familiar with my style know that me and serious don't go together all that well, so hopefully I have succeeded in a bit of a comic relief chapter. Enjoy

Chapter Twenty-One

I sat on a bench near the monkey enclosure listen to the two of them jabber with the primates. Laura was sitting on Lester's shoulders so that she had a better view, but I could see she was getting restless, she hadn't touched the ground in almost two hours, and for a three year old that's a long time, especially my three year old. Lester, on the other hand seemed oblivious to her jiggling and shifting. Then again, he could just be misinterpreting it as excitement. They walked along a bit and came to a bigger monkey... or it was possible an ape, I was too far away to read the sign. Lester set the child down on the ground so that he could imitate the animal. He really was the spitting image, with his face all drawn downwards his back hunched, knees bent and knuckles on the ground. Laura was laughing her guts up at the spectacle and I admit, I was chuckling a fair bit as well.

A woman in a zoo uniform approached the two of them and asked if she could take a picture for the notice board at the exit gate. Lester obliged, and as I made my way over toward them again heard the woman talking.

"It's so nice to see a family outing!" she exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Too often we see children being trailed by Nannies and caretakers. It truly is refreshing." Her attention turned to me as I approached. "You must be the mother," she said with the same zeal, "I can see it in your eyes. The same vibrant blue, it's truly amazing the colour!"

I smiled politely at her and nodded as Laura came to wrap her arms around my legs. "Les," I said to him, "We should probably get going, I've got to organise some stuff before we go home."

"Oh you can't cut such a glorious day short for business!" the woman butted in. "They were enjoying themselves so much! I'm sure whatever it is can wait until tomorrow. Now come on, let's get a picture of Mum, Dad and the precious little girl!"

Lester's eyes widened at her request. "Shit!" he exclaimed, quickly ducking behind the trash can. "You could have warned me, Steph!" He was peering fervently all around as if trying to catch a glimpse of something.

I chuckled a little at the spectacle he was making, and also the shocked look on the zookeeper's face. "Lester, honey, it's alright. Come out from behind the trash can please." To the keeper I added quietly, "He's on day release; mental institution on Haywood. We thought we'd take him on an outing seeing as he goes in for his frontal lobotomy next week."

The woman's face softened a bit and turned sad eyes on Lester, still hiding. Laura was giggling at my side and I leaned down to whisper to her, "You shouldn't laugh, Laura," I gave her a wink, which she knew meant I wasn't made at her and she wasn't doing anything wrong. Returning my attention to the still cowering Lester I cooed, "Come on, we'll get you an ice cream on the way out."

"I don't want an ice cream!" he exclaimed, although his voice was barely more than a whisper. "It's not safe, not while he's around."

Crouching down next to him, I took his hand in mine, which he tried to pull away in distress. He had a panicked look on his face and when I reached out a hand to caress his face lovingly he slapped it away. "Lester, baby, it's me. It's you're Stephie. What's wrong?" He did a mighty fine impression of a gold fish. "Who are you hiding from?"

"Dad," he whispered hoarsely, peering around the bin once more.

"Is he alright dear?" the zoo keeper asked, leaning closer.

Lester started backwards away from her, leaping to his feet, grabbing Laura and running full pelt. I sighed heavily and took off at a run behind him. Fortunately he had stopped just around the corner and out of sight. Laura was laughing, having the time of her life without knowing what was actually going on. Lester was bent at the waist bracing against his knees, trying to compose himself. "Oh my gosh!" he breathed. "It was so hard to keep a straight face back there! Frontal lobotomy! Where'd you pull that from?"

"I watched 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'," I shrugged, rubbing him on the back as the zookeeper came around the corner at a swift pace. "Laura, stay close please," I called to the still giggling girl a few feet away. The little girl skipped over and sat on the ground beside me, pigtails swinging.

"Is he alright?" called the zookeeper from what she probably thought was a safe distance.

I nodded and whispered to Lester to sit down with Laura for a moment before walking over to where she stood. "I'm sorry about that," I offered, "He must have palmed his meds again."

"What's wrong with him?" she asked in barely more than a whisper, her gaze never leaving Lester as he fiddled with Laura's curls.

"Sporadic paranoia. It's a result of the repressed memory therapy he did a few years back; it didn't quite turn out the way it was supposed to."

She nodded grimly as if she fully understood the nonexistent situation. Suddenly, though, her face changed back to the overzealous expression she had had earlier. "I hope he enjoys his visit to the zoo then," she said, plunging her hand into her pocket. "Here's a gift voucher for the gift shop, buy them both something nice."

I nodded just as I heard Lester's phone go off. Luckily, for the sake of our story, Laura had been looking after it. She pulled it from the front pocket of her overalls, pressed the appropriate button and greeted the person on the other end.

"Hi Daddy!" she exclaimed after a moment. "We're at the zoo with Uncle Lester!" She listened for a bit, then came prancing over to me holding the phone out. "Daddy wants to talk to you," she whispered.

"Thankyou, sweetie," I said, taking the phone, "Go back to Uncle Lester now. Thank you so much," I added to the zoo keeper. "We've had an enjoyable day. I really should take this call now." She nodded her understanding and waved goodbye to Lester and Laura. "Hi Honey," I said in a strained voice.

"Before you say anything," Ranger said quickly, "I wanted to apologise for the way Rachel acted, it was completely out of line and I should have told you who it was before you took over the call. I gave her a piece of my mind urging her to get as far away from me as possible so that I wouldn't do something I would regret."

"Ranger, Lester has already explained the situation to me, it's okay, I forgive you."

There was a sigh of relief on the other end, followed by a long period of silence. Finally, Ranger spoke again, "If you forgive me, why do you still have your phone turned off?"

"I guess I was still kinda mad at you that you would allow that to happen," I admitted, "And Laura and I needed some time out."

"Will you be home for dinner?" he asked, hopefully.

I had to chuckle at the degree of unsureness in his voice. I guess he had really thought he'd lost us for a while there, I knew how that felt. "We were just about to head over to the park," I told him, "Laura's gonna need to run. She hasn't said anything yet, but she's been on Lester's shoulders for the past couple of hours and has been getting a little fidgety. Why don't you meet us there?"

"That should have been my shoulders she was sitting on," he grumbled good naturedly. "I'll see you soon. I really am sorry."

We hung up and I lead the two children (I was resigned to the fact that Lester would never grow up) to the gift shop, explaining on the way the zookeeper had given me the gift voucher and that we were going to go to the park after we picked out souvenirs. Laura insisted on picking something out for Daddy, she chose a zoo colouring book for herself and we agreed on a t-shirt that read "The tiger ate my other shirt" with the Zoo logo across the top of the back. Lester eventually settled on a mechanical parrot that would repeat everything he said and would sit on his shoulder, I rolled my eyes because I knew that he would use it all the time. The cashier was just starting to tally up our purchases when Laura leaned down from her position atop Lester's shoulders and whispered in his ear. Lester looked up at me, and then to the items we had chosen and told me they would meet me at the car. They moved off, back into the gift shop as I finished paying for the souvenirs.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the car with another zoo gift bag. "We getted you something!" Laura told me as Lester strapped her in. "But you can't get it yet, you have to wait 'til we're with Daddy."

Thanks for reading, as always. Why don't you review and let me know what you think Les and Loz got Steph? I'd love to hear from you.