Exotic

IV

Sydney

"Sydney! Come down here." Mum called. It's too early on this fine Friday morning to be up. But I get up anyway. I made my downstairs, dangerously stretching my back as I went. I did almost fall down but we don't talk about that.

"Yes, Mum?"

"I found out that Dewey works at the local zoo. So I've booked us to go tomorrow. Just warning you so you don't have plans to go out into the world." Mum smirks at me.

"That's fine. What time?"

"Well, I've booked us onto the family tour so it'll be from ten to one. We'll pick up some maccas on the way home. Oh, and Dewey will be coming home with us." Mum says.

"Nice. You're really hitting it off with this Dewey girl, aren't you?" I smile a little. It makes me happy that she's found someone so soon.

"Yes, I am. She's really cool. I hope you guys will like her too."

"Well, I'll keep an open mind."

"Cheers, Sheila." Mum nodded.

I got myself some breakfast, a classic yoghurt and fruit with crushed weetabix, and a coffee. Abigail was sat at the table with her Frootloops, crunching away happily.

"Morning, Abigail." I say to my sister.

"Hi, Sydney. Are you okay?" she smiles at me.

"I'm great, thanks. How about yourself?"

"I'm amazing. Mum said we're going to the zoo tomorrow and we'll get to see lions and wolves!"

"That's so cool, isn't it?"

"Yeah!"

"Aw, it make me so happy to see you two getting along." Mum pouts as she sat at the table with us.

"I just think Sydney is really cool." Abigail shrugged.

"That's really sweet, Abs." Mum nodded.

"Oh, and I can't wait for her to join an ice hockey team so we can go to her games and cheer her on." Abigail adds.

"Me too, kid. And I'm sure she'll find a team really soon. She's really talented." Mum agreed.

"Alright, that's enough Sydney Worship." I chime in.

"But, Syd!" Abigail pouted.

"No. No more." I shake my head but she pouts harder.

"Please?"

"Don't do that! You know I can't say no to you when you do that! That's not fair."

"Fine. But you have to carry me on your shoulders tomorrow at the zoo."

"Deal." and I shook her hand.

---------

Mum parked in the car park while Abigail essentially vibrates in the seat behind me. She's really excited about seeing the lions and wolves.

"Right, let me pay for parking then we'll head inside. Can you get the other two ready?" Mum asks me.

"Yeah, sure." I nod.

While Mum goes to pay, I get my younger siblings out. They have to wear hats as the zoo is mostly outside, and the sun is beating down on us. I also make sure that they have their drinks and a snack in their little pack packs, if not, Mum always carries snacks in the car. She gets hungry easily, bless her. Luckily, both kids have their drinks and snacks. They put sun screen on before we left so I don't have to worry about that.

"Syd! Up!" Abigail demands.

"Yes, give me a second. Let me put my hat on." I tell the girl. Once that was done, I lifted her onto my shoulders and she happily patted my head.

"Thanks, Syd."

"No problem, Abs."

Mum came back and put the receipt in the car by the windshield. She locked the car and we headed into to the zoo's main entrance.

"Good morning! Do you guys have tickets?" the receptionist asked.

"Yeah, here we are." Mum showed her phone so the receptionist could scan it.

"Wonderful. We hope you have a fun time here!" the receptionist smiled as we passed.

"Thank you!" Mum replied.

We joined a big crowd full of families and waited for the tour to start. While Abigail was buzzing on my shoulders, Mum was buzzing next to me. She's really excited to see Dewey.

"Hey, everybody!" a short woman with the zookeeper uniform on greets. All the kids answer back, including Abigail, very loudly, "Wow, it looks like we've got some roarers in here!" the woman chuckled as she looked at Abigail perched on my shoulders.

"Yeah!" she squealed back.

"Love that. Well, I am Dewey, and I will be leading you through our zoo and talking to you a bit about the animals. And my assistant will in the enclosures and hopefully give you all a good show."

So this is Dewey. I looked to Mum and she had the biggest smile on her face. Dewey caught sight of her and gave her a big smile, and Mum basically died on the spot. Dewey chuckled and proceeded with her job.

"Let's get you all through these doors and start this show, shall we?"

The kids screamed in agreement and everyone excitedly filtered through the doors while Dewey held them open. Mum went in front of me and brushed her hand against her hip, and Dewey visibly shivered.

We were lead around to the first enclosure, starting off small with some foxes. All the kids melted at the sight of them because they were absolutely adorable.

"So, these are Fennec Foxes. As you can see they have big ears and-"

I sort of just tuned her out and focused on the enclosure. There was a girl in there with the foxes. All I could see was the back of her head and a brunette hair. It was pulled back into a ponytail that was threaded through her hat. She picked up one of the cute mammals and turned around so I could see her face. Well, she didn't turn around for me specifically, she just turned so she could show everyone the fox. She had tanned skin and a sweet smile. I couldn't see the colour of her eyes because of her hat. But from what I could see, she was gorgeous.

She demonstrated the parts of the fox that Dewey was talking about and eventually the fox cuddled into her. My heart melted and the children were even more in love with the fox.

This should be a fun tour.