The Dangers of Pomegranate Salad

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Eskamo Ice Cream Boy                                                                                                   

The next day, as we drive along, I see a sign that says ‘Zoo, next left’ I sigh. I haven’t been to a zoo in forever. Haden glances at me, then back at the road. We go into the exit lane.

“Consider it our first real date” he says with a smile. I am excited now. A zoo! As we drive to the zoo, I start thinking. There will be a lot of people there. Lots of people who watch the news.

 I ask Haden “are you sure this is the best Idea? I mean, we’re basically wanted fugitives, of your parents and the police. And we still need to get to Chicago”

 He sighs “let’s not think about that right now” I start thinking about the whole money thing too. I have about twenty dollars left, and I don’t know how much Haden has. I don’t know how much the tickets will be.

 “Do we have the money?” I ask him.

 “I think so. I took all of the money they had stashed in the house before it blew.”

 I nod “and how much was that?”

 “A lot”

My eyes widen “How much is ‘a lot’?”

 “it’s a lot, and we aren’t going to worry about that right now, we are going to go on a date.” he says. “And have fun” he adds as an afterthought.

“We will be impulsive teenagers who want to have fun and thus ignore the imminent danger ahead of them?” I say sarcasitcally

“Yep”

We park and get out. I grab my purse and Haden brings his penguin bag. We walk to the front and see that it’s not to terribly expensive. We pay and go in. “where do you want to go?” Haden asks me. I look at the map and point “The bats”

“Bats?”

“Yeah, there my favorite animal. Only mammal with wings! How cool is that?” I give a thumbs up. So we wander toward the bat enclosure. Looking at them is amazing. There so beautiful. There long leathery wings, cute fox faces, little bitty tails. I just love bats. I could stay here all day, but Haden would probably get bored. So we wander away from the bats, and go look at the wolves. Haden really likes them.  He looks so calm and has a slight smile on his face. I wonder if there his favorite. I remember he said he was a dog person. We keep going and look at all kinds of things. Cheetahs, moose, lemurs, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears (oh my!) and all sorts of other things.

“JJ was here!!!!!!” yelled some random middle schooler as she ran past us being chased by her mother. We glance at them then keep walking. When we get near the polar bear exhibit, we stop to get ice cream.  We walk slowly eating our ice cream, and we talk.

I try to get my facts straight “so. You and I are elementalists, very powerful elementalists. And this crazy sorceress wants to kill me for my power right?” I ask him.

 “Right although the powerful is just you. I’m just here”

“and this crazy sorceress wants what power exactly?” he frowns

“well it has to do with nature, I can tell you that. But what exactly your power is, I have no idea”

I nod “they called you ‘deaths son’ what does that mean?” I ask

“I’m not entirely sure. What I gathered from the book was that elementalists are called ‘children of the element’ death, wild, sky, life, moon, and sun. So I’m Deaths son, so I think I’m shadows and darkness, your Wild, so I think that means earth and nature. Sky would be air, Life would be light, Moon would be water and Sun would be fire.” He explains.

“Ok and what’s this sorceress lady?” I ask him “have you seen Avatar: the Last Air Bender?” he asks. I nod “a sorcerer is kind of like that, except any one can be one if they work hard enough. She does it by killing powerful elementalists for their element.”  And on that note, I notice we have wandered to the penguin exhibit. We walk through it and look at the penguins. One of them is standing under this snow machine as it snows flapping his flippers happily. There so cute. I smile and look at Haden. He looks at me. I start to lean up towards him and he leans towards me, our lips about to meet. And that’s when the penguin exhibit decides it should explode.

Haden and I are knocked over by the blast. We are both sprayed with pureed fish. I’m annoyed that our kiss has been interrupted and I stand up immediately. I assess the damage. No one is hurt, but a few penguins have escaped, and are running in gleeful circles as zoo keepers chase them. I notice a dark haired couple who are coming close to us. It’s the Underlan’s. Haden is standing now, covered in a mixture of ice-cream and fish. “Oh now I’m Eskamo ice cream boy” he mumbles under his breath. “That’s wonderful.” I smack him on the shoulder, and point to his ‘parents’ for lack of a better word. His eyes widen, “oh’ let’s leave…” we turn and behind us is Mrs. Underlan. “Hello, ‘Eskamo ice cream boy’” she says with a smile.

Haden sighs “I really should never have made that comment, because I am never going to live that down”

“We’re taking you to Gea” says Mr. Underlan.

“Um, how about no?” Haden grabs my hand and pulls me away from them. We run for our lives, with the Underlan’s close behind us. Luckily they trip over some penguins who squawk at them angrily. Haden pulls me into the gift shop. We rush and hide behind the penguin stuffed animals. The cash register guy looks at us suspiciously, “hey! This is a family establishment!” he yells at us. Why is it that every time we hide behind something together adults always thinks we’re ‘up to something’? Can’t two teens of the opposite gender hide from evil sorcerers in a pile of stuffed animals without people wondering what they’re up to?!

The Underlan’s run in and start look for us. The cash register guy points to the penguin stuffed animals. I glare at him. Mr. Underlan smiles and sends a fire ball hurtling at us. Haden and I dive out of the way, and start running again. The Underlan’s follow suite, leaving the cash register guy staring at the pile of burning penguins in disbelief. That’s what you get for telling on us, I think. I resist the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

 We keep running and I notice, amazingly, we have kept hold of our bags.  More fireballs explode behind us, as we make our way to the exit. I wish something would make them stop chasing us, I think. I turn and look at them, and see that their feet have been sucked into the ground like quick sand. They pull but they can’t move their legs.  Did I do that? I turn back in front of me.  We run out of the exit and make it to the car. We jump into the car and take off, just as the entrance to the zoo explodes. “Why does everything keep exploding?” Haden asks himself. We are quiet for a while. “well.” I say “that was fun.”