Chapter 6: Visiting the zoo
On Monday morning I had to get up early. The assembly of the first big wind turbine was to be started today, with the set of blades lifted to the hub with the help of a huge mobile crane. Fortunately, there was almost no wind blowing today, and the mobile crane, which had arrived during the night, could start working. Strictly speaking, my presence was not really required, and Haymitch had everything under control. However, watching the whole process was too tempting, and I wanted to capture the process with my camera at least. Naturally, attaching the blades to a huge wind generator was a time consuming process, and it was still in progress when the school bus arrived in the early afternoon. As the area was well visible from the road to the Seam, all of the school children stopped on their way and gawked, which somehow amused me. Of course, the site was separated from the road with a fence; we could not risk having somebody walking around while the crane was operating. I walked over to the fence and explained to those who wanted to listen what was going on. Specifically the Hawthorne boys, Rory and Vick, were very interested and standing in the first row.
The operation continued over the next few days, and I watched again on Tuesday. It was amazing to watch the specialists moving around high above us, attached to the high platform with climbing ropes and doing their best to quickly screw the blades onto the hub, and I have to admit that I skipped some of my other tasks just to observe. But hey, that was the advantage of being the boss – nobody would scold or blame me for that.
On Wednesday, of course, I had different plans, and I was looking forward to the day quite a lot. There was no need to pack something to eat or to drink, as there was plenty of that offered at the zoo. Prices were a little steep there, but this was not really an issue for me. I took a small backpack with a water bottle anyway, because I expected to buy a few gifts for the kids. Right on time I drove my Jeep to school and parked, waiting for the three girls to come out. Fortunately all three of them had a compatible schedule today, so that they should all be done at about the same time.
The school bell rang, and hundreds of children were streaming out of the main school building. While it would have been challenging for me to identify the three girls in the huge crowd, I had suggested that they should head towards the car park and look for my bright red Jeep, which could be easily seen between all other cars; thus I relaxed and waited. Prim and Rue arrived first, with Prim happily starting like a chatterbox: "Timotheus, here we are! I am so glad that you actually came, and let me tell you about our history lesson today, and..." when I interrupted her: "Prim, hold on for a second – let me greet Rue as well, please." And I turned to Rue and addressed her: "My dear Rue, Happy Birthday to you. I sincerely hope that you may enjoy the afternoon, and please let me know if there is something specific we should do!" She looked a little shy, but thanked me. At this time, Monica was also coming up, and I shoved all of them into the car. While we were driving to the zoo, Prim and Monica were chatting almost constantly, and I had a feeling that this was a little bit too much for Rue, who was sitting in the center of the back row. So far she seemed to be more the quiet type and not as open and outgoing as at least Prim was. With at least some success I encouraged the girl to also look outside, as they probably rarely had a chance to see the streets we were taking, passing a few other districts and taking the highway towards the city section were the zoo was located.
Panem National Zoo was famous in the country, not only for its variety of animals, but also for the huge area it occupied. Even if one spent an entire day there, it was barely possible to see all animals and walk all of the internal roads and walkways. That, of course, was not my intention anyway. There was no way I could make the girls rush through all sections quickly, but we rather needed to focus on a few ones and take our time. When entering, everybody received a small printed map, and we first did some brainstorming while sitting on a bench to decide where to start. The zoo did have a narrow track miniature railway track going around, and the tour promised to pass many interesting animal enclosures; we all agreed to take that first. While we had to wait ten minutes or so – after all, it was a sunny day, and there were quite a few visitors around – the ride was fully worth the wait, and Prim was squeaking most of the time. At those times, she behaved more like an eight years old than a twelve year old, but that was all right to me. After all, I knew that she could be a very competent person to talk to when needed, and I fully accepted that older kids and sometimes even adults needed to behave like small kids every once in a while. Monica was also sometimes shouting when she noticed an interesting animal, but Rue was very quiet, and for a few minutes she even rested her head at my shoulder. I told the children that the zoo close to my home city also had a similar miniature railroad track, and when I was a kid I had always insisted to ride it first.
After the train ride we had a much better idea about where to go next, and we started off with the ape house close by. As most apes were used to warm climate, they had built the whole ape area indoors, but there were huge cages with trees, bushed and even small creeks. In the cages, thick branches had been carefully placed to enable climbing, and there was the occasional swing and other toy. Areas were carefully separated between chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orang-utans, and all four of us spent quite some time watching the apes, specifically the younger ones which would occasionally use a swing or just race each other around. The girls had lots of fun comparing some of the younger apes to themselves, and I had fun listening to something like "Rue, this cute little gorilla looks like you" and "Prim, if this orang-utan baby over there had blonde hair, it could be you". I was tempted to ask them if they could see an ape looking like me, but wisely decided against it.
Behind the ape house there was a separate area where kids could go in and pet animals, mostly goats, sheep, and rabbits. All three girls took the opportunity and did that, while I waited outside and took some pictures. When they were done, we found ourselves at the beginning of a very big enclosure, which was supposed to have animals from the steppe in Africa – zebras, gnus, and antelopes – in it. Actually, that enclosure was on the right of the road, whereas the left showed the animals usually hunting those on the other side, namely lions, leopards, and cheetahs. Big panels on both sides explained a lot of details on the living and feeding habits of the shown animals, and there were a number of elevated platforms with attached binoculars helping visitors to get a better view on the animals. It was left to everybody's imagination to visualize the lazy predators actually hunting their prey rather than being fed by the zookeepers, but a lot of kids around got really excited about that.
Prim asked me: "Why are there no tigers shown here, when there are lions?"
I explained: "The animals and predators exhibited here are all from Africa, whereas tigers live in some parts of Asia – this does not fit."
Walking along the road and watching both predators and potential prey took a lot of time with all the breaks and watching, and my three girls told me that they were getting a little hungry. While it was early for supper, there was an ice cream vendor coming up, and I allowed them to pick whatever they wanted, which turned out to keep them busy for more than ten minutes. Prim hugged me once again and assured me that she was having a great day. Monica said the same, but Rue was awfully quiet. While Prim and Monica finished their ice cream, I asked Rue is something was wrong. She told me: "It is kind of you to ask. And no, nothing is wrong, I do enjoy the day. I am just getting tired again."
After watching a few more animals, we approached one of the big playgrounds, and this one had a particularly big and high climbing frame, with slides attached in various shapes and lengths. There was a sign saying that parents should watch their kids, and only experienced climbers were supposed to even try getting to the very top. All three girls immediately got started with climbing, and even Rue's tiredness was suddenly gone. Monica was all right with the lower parts; she was not quite that agile and not a big climber, but she had fun nonetheless. Prim was more active and easily got to the middle area with a large kind of balcony, from where she happily waved down to me. Looking out for Rue, I found her to be right on the way to the top, and I was getting a little scared – I should have pointed out first that this was for very experienced climbers only. But Prim shouted down to me: "Tim, do not worry – Rue is an excellent climber; just wait and see!" Well, Prim knew Rue much longer than I did, and I trusted her; besides, there wasn't much I could do anyway, so that I took my camera out and waited. Only a few minutes later, Rue indeed showed up at the top and happily waved down; I had the camera ready and took pictures of her at the top and Prim further down.
Having spent some time here at the playground, we only had about two hours left before the zoo closed, and we agreed to spend most of that in the jungle section. This was a huge enclosed section with a transparent roof, having a jungle like climate all inside. There was a long walkway going around on different levels, and a raft water ride of like twenty minutes at the end, so that one could easily spend about one hour exploring the area. When we entered, though, Rue was again getting tired and started yawning.
I looked at her and asked her how she was doing, and she replied: "I don't know why, but I am getting tired again. I am not sure if I can make the round here."
I was unsure what to do, but suggested: "Okay, your call, Rue. I can give you two options: I can either carry you piggyback so that you do not have to walk, or I can sit with you on a bench and you can take a nap while Prim and Monica walk around – what do you think?"
Rue quickly decided: "Please let me nap for a few minutes!"
Addressing Monica and Prim I asked: "Do you think you can find your way around and do the tour in here plus the water ride on your own?"
Monica assured me: "We are not little kids anymore, and there are plenty of signposts – let us do that and do not worry!"
With those words they ran off to have some fun, and I picked a bench for Rue and myself to sit down. While I started to get comfortable, she looked at me and asked: "Can I please sit on your lap while napping?" I was quite surprised to hear that, but did not mind; after all, she was quite petite and not heavy at all, so that was going to be all right for the hour or so until Monica and Prim would be back. I retrieved an old and worn paperback novel from my backpack, placed the water bottle beside us and told her: "That's all right, if you really want to." Quickly she placed herself on my lap, leaned her body back into my chest, moved her head sideways to rest it against my left arm, and was asleep within a minute or two.
It had been a long time since I had last had a girl sitting on my lap, maybe one of my younger cousins at home during a birthday party or so. Usually those girls had been much younger, though, and I felt a little odd having a twelve year old doing that. On the other hand, Rue did not really look like a twelve year old girl; with her petite and skinny frame and her small face she looked more like being eight or nine years old, as I had already noticed at Prim´s birthday. She was probably also undernourished, which reminded me to provide some supper as the last station here at the zoo. Rue actually napped until Prim and Monica came back a little less than one hour later. They had had a great time and chatted for some time about the colorful birds, butterflies, and exotic plants they had seen and partially also touched. With Rue awake again, we proceeded to the nearby snack bar and found ourselves something to eat, before we left the zoo and drove home, with darkness soon descending upon us.
When I dropped Rue at her parents' house, she was asleep again, and I told her mother: "Rue had a great time, as far as I can tell. She climbed to the very top of the climbing frame at the playground, but she was getting tired a lot, She actually napped for an hour in the jungle section and most of the time when we drove home again. Did she maybe not have much sleep last night?"
Her Mother responded: "No, she has slept all right last night. But I have also observed lately that she is tiring more quickly than she should. I do not have an idea why that happens, and I hope that this phase will pass soon. In the last few weeks, she has started having an afternoon nap after school, what she last did when she was three years old. I do hope that she is not getting sick. But, thank you very much for giving her a good day!"
I smiled and replied: "You are welcome, and it was a pleasure for me to spend an afternoon with three wonderful girls!"
Taking my leave, I went back to the car and drove up to the Seam, dropping Prim at her house. I greeted Mrs. Everdeen, assured her that Prim also had a great day, and also received thanks for doing that. Before I left I mentioned Rue tiredness, and Mrs. Everdeen got a little bit concerned, with herself being a healer. She told me that there might indeed be some kind of illness, but of a type she would not be capable to identify most likely.
Finally, I took Monica home and was happy to end a nice and enjoyable day. Naturally, when I was in bed later on, I was thinking a lot about what had happened, and somehow I continued to think about Rue's tiredness.
[Author's Note: I loved to ride a miniature railroad like the one in the story in the zoological garden in Nürnberg, Germany; the jungle section of the zoo in my story has been inspired by the 'Gondwanaland' area in the zoological garden of Leipzig, Germany]