A DAY AT THE ZOO “Misha look. Do you see the sea otter?” The little boy ran around in circles giggling to himself. “You see them over there touching noses?” “They’re nice.” Rumelia stepped beside her husband and rubbed his back thoughtful. Kaleb sighed leaning forward on the rail, “He’s not interested at all.” “He’s four.” “These were my favorite when I was his age. Look at them jump out of the water,” Kelab beamed with recaptured youth. “They still are.” Rumelia smiled and bent down on one knee. “Mish come look at the otters. See them play?” The small child broke his cycle and bounced over to his mother. “Look Mish,” Rumelia pointed at the weasels with one hand and ran the other through her son’s hair. The boy squatted then leapt forward wrapping his arms around the railing. His head scanned from left to right and back again. His arm tossed back wildly, violently scratching his back. He stomped his foot impatiently and fell back into his mother’s legs. “I want to see something else,” Misha pleaded. “Look,” Kaleb rang, pointing after two otters that had shot onto the shore and waddled into a bush. “What? What?” Misha demanded. He had missed it. The wind stirred the surface of the water and sent a chill up Rumelia’s back. “Maybe we should get going to something else hon.” Misha let go of his mom’s leg and skipped ahead along the pavement. “Kelab?” “Huh!?” Kaleb turned to his wife; he had forgotten she was there. “Mish wants to go look at some of the other animals.” Kelab starred at her blankly, he had heard what she said but needed a moment to process it. There was a great distance between them. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up,” Kaleb whispered. The words carried the great distance between the two as if they had been spoken at the Theatre of Dionysus. “Ok,” was all Rumelia answered before turning and jogging after Misha. There was no reproach in her response. It was gentle, understanding, and coexistent. Kaleb stood gazing into the pool before him. His eyes followed the otters as they swam back and forth, emerging briefly and then diving back below the surface. As he watched his eyes glazed over. The lines of the otters and the water lost their shape and become streaks of brown on blue. One of the brown streaks slowed and held at the meeting of the blue that was the pond and the blue that was the sky. The brown blotch bobbed lazily betwixt the blue hues. Kaleb felt suspended. He became one with the brown blotch. He closed his eyes and smiled an old forgotten smile. ***** The water felt warm against Kaleb’s back. While the air was cool, it was pleasant, the sun tickled his belly lightly giving the impression of a bedsheet. Kaleb exhaled peacefully out his nose and involuntarily chuckled as his whiskers swayed under his breath. He laid like this for some time, drifting off at one point and only wakening up when the sun was lost behind a cloud, pulling away his sheet. Kaleb smacked his gums mindless and realized he was hungry. Twisting his body, Kaleb rolled onto his stomach and kicked into the murky blue. He couldn’t see too well but he could smell something. He thought of his high school homecoming date and the fish markets his nonny would drag him to as a child. He slowly floated towards the memories, and they became more vivid. Images of butchers in bloody aprons swinging cleavers, yelling gibberish, flashed alongside images of the back of his Dad’s Chevy Tahoe and folds of lilac hiding folds of innocence. A light wave brushed Kaleb’s whiskers and he instinctually shot off toward the source, canines barred. He bit down forcefully on the perch and tasted iron. His first thought was to squeeze tighter, his second was of licking the backs of his hands as a child to sooth their bleeding that would happen when they dried out in the cold months. He focused on the former and after thirty-seconds or so the thrashing ceased. As he approached the surface of the water, he thought he saw the unnatural orange of his uncle’s hunting vest just beyond the surface. He breached and saw the sky succumbing to purple and red, his uncle kneeling in the golden grass beside the panting deer was nowhere in sight. He rolled onto his back and started digging into the fish. The image of his wife and him eating sushi on their first date pulsed in his head. Kaleb suddenly felt very lonely. He let out a high-pitched yelp. He didn’t feel like eating any longer, he had lost his appetite. He tossed the remains of his catch off his chest and into the water. He looked wistfully at the sky. I wonder what it would feel like to fly, he thought. Suddenly the water broke beside him, and a fellow otter rolled onto their back holding the discarded fish. They floated beside each other, the new otter bumping into Kelab’s side as it nibbled its remains. Kaleb’s heart started pounding irregularly and he was overwhelmed with feelings of kindergarten playdates, notes passed in geometry, and the warmth of coffee with someone special in mid-December. He’d be worried about his sweaty palms if he hadn’t already been in water and had had sweat glands. The otter beside him tossed the remaining bones onto Kaleb’s head, chortling mischievously. It then rolled onto its belly and plunged below the water. Kaleb quickly brushed the bones off his face and gave chase. They darted through the water, Kaleb just behind. He followed the feeling of the water on his whiskers and the pull of his heart. They spiraled together, interlaced in dance. The two splotches of brown became one. “Excuse me sir! You cannot play with the animals,” shrieked a zookeeper, hysterically waving their limbs from behind the railing. Kaleb snapped to. He was wet. He set down the little animal in his hands and patted it on its head. He turned and walked toward the irate keeper. He had to find his wife and son.