A Swing in the Park

7. The Zoo

"What would you like to do today?" My father said. "Elsa is in the flower shop today, so we'll have the whole day ourselves. How about the zoo?"

"Yes!" I said excitedly. "Take me to the zoo! I love going there. The last time you and me and mom went was before..."

"Yes, before," he said softly.

I realized I'd just said something awkward and I let the silence fall between us like an invisible wall.

"I'm sorry, "my father said then. "It's all I know to say and I'll go on saying it."

"But it won't make it better," I said.

"No," he said, "it won't."

"Fathers aren't supposed to go away," I said.

"No, they're not," he said.

I leaned into his shoulder while we drove to 49th Street and parked the car. He paid for our tickets and we walked into the zoo.

It was noon and many folks were carrying sandwiches in plastic bags. Others stood in long lines at the burgers and hot-dog stand which was an old camper set up on concrete blocks. The side had been opened and rolled up and a man inside was working the grills.

"Are you hungry? "My father said. "We could get a bite to eat here and sit on the bench over there and watch the monkeys."

"Yeah!" I said. "Monkeys are my favorite!"

We joined the line, ordered our burgers and took them on plastic plates to the bench. The monkeys were sitting on their hunches in the corners of the cage. A child came by and threw a banana over the fence and it landed in front of a large monkey. He reached for it lazily and opened it from the bottom.

"Dad, "I said, "Mrs. Jacobs my science teacher says we evolved from monkeys. That means I once had a monkey for a father. I don't think I believe in that."

"What do you believe?" He smiled.

"We came from the stars," I said. "Pieces fell off from them and traveled to earth and they already had all the animals and people inside it."

"It's called panspermia," he said. "It's the idea that meteorites and comets seeded earth with genetic material, kind of like seeding a garden. The material was dormant until it met with the right environment and then it began to evolve into the various life forms."

"Well, then the monkeys came from the stars too," I smiled, "so we couldn't have come from them."

"I guess not," my father smiled. "You're doing some awful deep thinking for an 8 year-old, Katie."

"I guess so," I said. "What I can't figure out is where males and females came from. They must have been one in the beginning and then split apart, so now men and women are trying to get back together again. I guess you couldn't do it with mom, so now you're doing it with Elsa."

"It doesn't work like that," he sighed. "You're thinking too much."

"Do you know mom has a boyfriend?" I said.

"No," he said.

"His name is Fred," I said. "He works at the old folks home. He gives me the creeps."

"How so?" He said.

"He looks at me funny," I said.

"Funny how?" He said.

"Like I'm not a girl," I said. "Like I'm a woman."

"Are you ever alone with him?" He asked.

"No," I said.