Spain

The Zoo and The Truth

Chapter four- The Zoo and The Truth

Luke was worried about me. I had been so quiet and quite withdrawn since reading the letters. I hadn’t cried again, I almost did, twice, but thankfully, I kept myself together when times were crucial. Luke came to me on Wednesday morning and said

“Anna, Lets go to the zoo.” I thought he was joking, I laughed, but he was serious, so off we trudged to the zoo.

As we were walking towards the elephants I saw a girl, five or maybe six, sitting on the curb crying. The girl had beautiful blonde hair that came just below her shoulders, it had a certain bounce to it that made her look like she had be plucked from a magazine, every now and again she would lift her head to glance around so I saw her glistering blue eyes. I could imagine that they would shine when she smiled.   I walked over to her, sat down beside her, and hugged her. She didn’t react, but after about 10 minutes, she stopped crying. She started blabbering on in French.Her voice even though thick from crying was sweet and sounded like a song. If you speak Spanish I’m your girl, English I’ll be there in a flash, I even do German, but French? I suck! But I forgot! Luke! He was already responding in French just as fast. It was very impressive.

He told me here name was Annalessa, and her mum had told her to stay there, left her sister somewhere else and just walked out.  I was mortified! No! I thought my mother hated me!

We walked around for what felt like hours until finally we found her sister Celeste, she could speak English and surprisingly good Spanish. We could have a really good conversation. Celeste had long brown hair, and also shining blue eyes, her smile when she saw her sister made my day. She made a point of being more mature, I knew what she was doing, being strong for her sister, making sure that Annalessa would be safe.

We stood and talked for a while but came to the conclusion of going to the front desk.

Apparently lots of people felt it right to ditch their children around here because the lady did not seem horrified nor surprised but bored and annoyed.

“Well, these girls will either go to a foster home, or they will go to the orphanage.” Said the old lady behind the counter in a tired voice

“NO! Isn’t there anything I can do? Cells, (the nickname we came up with while walking along) would you like to live with me?” Cells face lit up

“CEE! CEE! Oh YES!”

“Well that settled then. Let’s go get you adopted!”

Luke warned me against being an idiot (like usual) and making quick dumb decisions (like usual), he said that being a mother was harder than I thought but I didn’t care. I was their new Aunt Anna and they were my beautiful girls; Annie and Cells.

That was the best day at the zoo ever!

It felt like the zoo was just brought home to my hotel. It had taken ages but Luke and I finally got Cells and Annie to be mine but I still had to think about the party Luke thought he would be ‘hilarious’ and book the flights and buy the tickets. He was determined to get me there. As Sunday creped forever closer I became more and more scared. Every time I saw the pieces of paper with the details of the flights on them I stopped breathing, I couldn’t breathe. I decided that I was going to tell Luke about Dad and Leigh Anne. Why I can’t stand mum, and what I think of whenever I hear the name Janet. I will cry. I think I will get the girls to go to the cinema or something so I have some time and I don’t have to tell them. They would be terrified. 

The opportunity never came up. We were always so busy doing things as a family for Luke and I to have a conversation such as I wanted. Thursday went past, Friday zoomed by, Saturday came along. As the girls went to bed after a long day at the pool I walked up to Luke. He was sitting his pyjamas on the couch. His legs were stretched out in front of him, his hair spiked up by the girls, his mouth was attacking a sandwich and his eyes trying to watch the movie on TV. I sat on his legs and told him what he had been dying to ask.

“I endangered they’re reputation. I was in a fight at school, I won. But that day I lost so much more. I hit her in the nose, broke it. I shoved her against a wall, broke three ribs. I kicked her knee, broke that too. She was a mess… I had a black eye. My mother was outraged; she lost her best friend, because her best friend was that girl’s mother. I couldn’t believe I had done it, gotten so angry. But I had. One day she told me to get out. So I did. I hugged my sisters and before mum realised that I had taken the words literally I left. And then… As I walked along, a lovely, young, lost gentleman heard me cry. And that lovely, young, lost gentleman hugged me, became my only friend and so, my best, and forever more he has stayed that.”

I wasn’t crying. I couldn’t believe it. I lost it. I cried. He held me, just as he had that night five years ago. I cried, and cried. He said

“I love you. I truly do, more than a best friend.” I finally managed

“oh, my.” Then we both laughed together. “I love you too. In the same way.” And to prove my love I slowly and carefully moved closer to his face, and I kissed him. It was beautiful, long, silent and beautiful. We broke apart. Seconds after, Annie walked out. Thankful she hadn’t seen the kiss, we jumped apart and sat on the couch giving her questioning look

“What is it Annie?”

“I heard you crying, I wanted to know why you were sad.”

“That is a conversation for the morning; I am alright darling, go to bed now, Good night!”