July Apple Pies

Chapter Eleven

I wasn't going to upload this until tomorrow, but I actually made it to the popular list in the Short Story category (#947, not that awesome, I know, but still unvelievable to me) so I had to upload this as a thank you to all of you readers, both silent and non-silent. I will, however, ask a favor to all of you: could you please please please comment and/or vote on this one if you read it and like it? I would love to go even higher on the list if possible and you are the only ones that can make that happen!! Thank you so much for reading!!

Chapter Eleven

The dream of the goat and the school bus

SHE WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD again. It was the day of the school trip to the zoo, and she was sitting by herself as the bus drove outside of Pallow and into the long road that would take them to a nearby city where the zoo was.

Around her, her classmates were playing and screaming.

Even when she was little, Nora enjoyed being by herself, not having to talk just because. But not everyone thought that was normal.

When the little boy with the bright smile sat next to her, little Nora decided to ignore him and stare out the window.

She didn’t know much about him, but she knew he was friends with Jack, a boy who liked making jokes all the time and who didn’t take anything seriously. She didn’t like Jack. And she wasn’t going to like anyone that Jack liked.

“Hi,” the little boy said, trying to get her attention.

When she didn’t answer, he just sat back and didn’t try to talk to her anymore. But he didn’t leave.

“What do you want?” she asked when her nerves, or maybe it was curiosity, got the best of her.

The little boy shrugged. “To sit with you.”

“Why?” she asked.

The little boy shrugged again. “Your eyes are cool,” he said.

She blushed. “Thanks. But they are not cool.”

“Yes, they are,” the boy said. “They are green and brown and then yellow. It’s cool.”

She blushed again.

They didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, but the boy didn’t leave her side. And even if little Nora would never admit it, she was glad he didn’t. Someone actually liked her enough to be with her even when she didn’t feel like talking. And she liked that.

“What is that?” Little Nora asked.

“That, kids, is a goat,” the zookeeper said to the class in general, not really concerned about who had asked the question.

“He looks sad,” little Nora said, trying to get the bored woman’s attention. But the woman was already walking away.

“He lives in a cage, of course he is sad,” someone said beside her. When she turned around, she wasn’t surprised to know Jack had been the one who said that. But she had been surprised to realize he actually looked concerned about the animal.

“We should go with the class,” a nervous Ryder said next to them.

Jack nodded and both boys left. But Nora stayed behind.

Hours later, the people who worked on the zoo would blame everyone below them of what happened. The zookeeper would blame the security guy. The security guy would blame the veterinarian. The veterinarian would blame the person who was in charge of feeding the animals. And that person would blame the gardener.

The truth was, nobody really knew whose fault it had been. But that day, someone had forgotten to close the gate of the cage the sheep and goats were in. And a little seven year old girl managed to get inside it.

The cameras weren’t very precise on showing how she did it, but it was clear the little girl managed to get inside the cage and tie a rope around the neck of one of the goats. She even managed to get him out of his cage effortlessly.

For some reason, no one seemed to question the fact that a seven year old girl in a pale green dress walked around the zoo with a goat. No one seemed to find it weird that she managed to get out of the zoo gates with said animal. And no one at all–except for two of her classmates–thought it weird that she dragged the animal inside a large yellow school bus.

“Is that a goat?” Jack asked as he climbed into the bus behind Nora.

“It’s the sad goat,” she said, as if that explained everything.

Ryder took a few steps forward and patted the bored animal’s head. “What are you going to do with it?” he asked.

Little Nora frowned for a few seconds and Ryder could see the small wrinkles that formed on her forehead and around her cool eyes as she did so.

“I am going to adopt him,” she said.

“Cool!” Jack exclaimed. “Can I be his dad?” he asked.

Both Nora and Ryder turned to look at him like he was crazy.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll be his brother,” he said. “But then Ry has to be the dad.”

Both boys turned to look expectantly at Nora.

After a few seconds of thinking it through, she shrugged and nodded. “Okay. If I get to be the mom and you help me hide him you can be whatever you want.”

Hiding a goat inside a school bus wasn’t easy, but they managed to make it halfway to Pallow before anyone realized what they had done.

Once they where caught, there were a long series of explanations from the kids and the people who worked at the zoo, and also another long series of scowls from parents, teachers, and bosses. But no one really came to know how those three kids managed to steal a goat from one of the most secure zoos in the country.

And since none of the kids knew either, that event would forever be remembered as the goat incident.