He is on a bit of a random kick. This time, it is eight
random words:
Saw
Milkshake
Bath
Flowerpot
Wheelchair
Bully
Zoo
Heretic
And you must choose four
of these and incorporate them into a piece of flash fiction no more than 1000
words long, posted at your blog or online space by Friday, June 8th, at noon.
~~~~~~
AHHH Heck. I used them ALL! But in a little more than 780
words.
~~~~~~
Heresy.
He was leaning too far over the edge of the pit, in her
opinion.
“Be careful!” She grabbed the back of his hoodie and hauled
him backwards. Why did he even have a hoodie on? It was so warm today.
The drink in his hand sloshed in its container, the lid came
off and liquid spilt down her leg.
“Ewwww. You spilt your milkshake all over me. Now I will
have to have a bath when I get home.”
“Not my fault,” he wailed. “You grabbed me.”
“Of course I did. You could have fallen. You want to end up in
a wheelchair?”
It was a rhetorical question. His eyes narrowed at her. “You’re
a bully,” he declared. He shifted his shoulders sullenly. “I wasn’t going to
fall.”
“I am a babysitter,” she corrected.
“Bully,” he mumbled. “I am not a baby.”
“You are a little
kid. You are supposed to like the zoo.” She made it sound as if it was his
fault.
“This zoo is wrong.”
“Wrong?” She wiped her leg with a crumpled tissue. She looked
at it and clearly thought better of returning the now, soggy tissue to her bag.
She looked around for witnesses and shoved it into a nearby flowerpot.
He glared at her. “A litterer and a bully.”
She rolled her eyes. “Always with the drama.” She gave him a
second glance, and then sighed. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Why is this zoo wrong?” she clarified.
“It’s old.”
“Traditional,” she argued.
“No.”
She glared at him again. She wondered why she could not have
a normal kid to babysit. She had to get the ‘little professor’. And it was
Samuel, never Sam or heaven forbid, Sammie.
“I am not a zoo heretic,” he expanded. “The cages are old,
out-of-date, inappropriate and poorly maintained.”
Her mouth quirked. Heretic, honestly. “Uh-huh.”
“Look! That is a Bengal tiger. A forest creature, in a cramped
concrete cage with a pond too small for it to get in, let alone swim through.”
She looked where he was pointing. She kind of saw his point.
“Cats don’t like water.”
“Tigers do.” He took a breath. “The Bengal tiger,” he
recited, “has a habitat of dry and wet deciduous forests, grassland and
temperate forests, and mangrove forests.”
“Like a swamp?” That cage didn’t look anything like a swamp;
it barely had any greenery. “Oh.” A pause. “The poor thing.”
“Indeed. That cage is singularly inappropriate for a Bengal
tiger.”
“You’re right,” a voice interrupted them.
A man in a khaki uniform was looking at Samuel with
admiration. “But you know what?” The man crouched down to be more the height of
the small child.
Samuel shook his head.
“We have had a big fundraiser to build her a new enclosure.”
“Really?”
“It’s almost ready.” He looked around and then whispered conspiratorially,
“Would you like to see it?”
Samuel’s face lit up. “Would I?” He grabbed her hand. “Come
on, Jesse.”
The zookeeper gave her a smile.
“She’s my babysitter even though I am NOT a baby,” Samuel explained.
“I can see that. Babies don’t know about tigers.”
“No, they don’t.”
Jesse was dragged along as Samuel launched into a battery of
questions. The keeper answered them all and didn’t talk ‘down’ to him or
simplify his language.
“Thank you,” Jesse mouthed at him over Samuel’s head.
The more questions he asked, the more she understood that
Samuel was not just an irritating kid; he was extremely intelligent, with a memory
that bordered on photographic. She gained a new respect for him. He even looked
uncharacteristically childlike as he bounded around inside the new enclosure
pretending to be a tiger.
“Asperger’s?” the keeper asked her.
“Yes. That’s what his parents told me.”
A nod. “My little brother was like that, but his special
interest topic was trains.”
She laughed. “He likes trains too. Especially-”
“Thomas the Tank Engine,” they both said. They laughed.
“He’ll get better with age. He may learn to be social.”
Somehow she doubted it, but now she half hoped she might be
around to see it. “Thanks again.”
“You’re welcome. Bring him back later next week. The move
day is set for Tuesday.”
“I’d like to do that.” She glanced
at the boy. “And I know that Samuel would love to.”
He nodded. “Ask for Daniel.”
“Samuel! We need to go now.”
“I understand.” He prowled over
and stopped in front of them. He held his hand out. “It’s been a pleasure,” he
stated.
Daniel shook it earnestly. “Until we meet again.”
Jesse hid her smile.
Daniel winked at her.
Samuel told her even more information about tigers on the
bus ride home. She listened carefully and asked questions.
