The Mandrill Exhibit

Part 1: THE ZOO

"Daddy, daddy! Where are they?"

"Huh?" John Grundy looked up from the political story he was reading on his phone--a racy scandal involving a congressman and some hushed-up affair--and turned with more than a little irritation in his gaze to Robbie, his seven-year-old son. His indignation was that of every parent who is interrupted from what they are doing by a whining child, an annoyance that cannot be so simply mended with a shut the hell up, as could be done to a fellow adult. And after seven years of parenting, John was well accustomed to these interruptions that pulled him from whatever he was doing. Also accompanying this back-to-reality jolt came the sour stink of animal feces, the chirp of a distant tropical bird, and the burning light of the late afternoon sun. The zoo was not busy at this hour--hell, he was probably right to guess that he, Robbie, and Janice were probably among the last families here. Plenty of other kids had pressured their parents to leave around 12 PM, that magic hour in the day when hunger and fatigue sets in for children and turns them grumpier and less agreeable than the fat koala from the Australia exhibit that had chosen so nicely to loudly hock a thick white wad of saliva onto John's 'Skins hat. At least the koala hadn't nagged him to stay longer.

John would have held his resolve against his son's demands to see more, but he'd eventually crumbled to stay another three hours when Janice had agreed with Robbie. There were many things in life that he could argue with, but his wife was not one of them. His last hurrah to leave was a compromise: Robbie could choose one more exhibit to visit, then they would start making their way out of the zoo with stops along the way to visit prior animals. His son had reluctantly agreed, and that was how he found himself now, standing in a thick haze of shit stink and stale popcorn, looking up to answer whatever Robbie wanted now.

"Dad!"

"What's up, champ?" John pulled an interested smile as he came to join his son at the iron railing. Robbie was looking down into the lush vegetation below with dismay from beneath the wide brim of his baseball cap.

"The mandrills, daddy! I don't see them! You said they'd be here!"

John couldn't have cared less if the so-called mandrills were dead and buried in Timbuktu, but monkeys were monkeys to Robbie. Easily his favorite animal at the zoo, they had spent much of the day simply going from one primate cage to the next, first the chimps, then the orangutans (the insane jungle gym had made John's head swim), then to the immensely large and intimidating gorilla in his plexiglass holding pen, and finally to this no-show exhibit. Only natural that the last stretch of the journey would be the most difficult. He sighed and looked over the side.

"Yeah, I don't see them either, champ. Maybe they're sleeping."

"Mandrills don't sleep during the day! Only bats sleep during the day! Where are they, daddy? You said we'd see them!"

Because I just WANT TO GO HOME, John said to himself, but he didn't speak it aloud. Instead, he took a deep breath and went for the stalling approach. "Did you check the entire cage? Sometimes the animals don't want you to see them, Robbo, so they blend in. You know, like that lizard we–"

"That was a reptile, dad," Robbie said it like John was a stupid child who needed it explained very slowly to him. "Reptiles can camouflage, not monkeys. And these guys have bright faces, so they're extra bad at hiding. I read about it in National Geographic." National Geographic was, of course, Robbie's favorite magazine, namely for its inclusion of many articles about primates. Three weeks ago, the magazine had sent a free 'safari man' jacket for keeping the subscription, and Robbie had refused to take it off since. Just then, John thought it made his son look impishly childish.

"Do you even know what they look like, dad?"

A muscle popped painfully in his jaw. "I really don't know, champ. Maybe they just aren't out right now. You knew they were here, maybe that's enough for now."