Chapter 12

 

 

“You’re such a cute little pain in the butt, aren’t you?” Hannah cooed, watching the monkey grip her fingers through the cage.

He had recovered well from his injuries, the vet was satisfied he was ready to go home – wherever that was. Nobody had come forward to claim him, despite Cory’s attempts to get the word out that he was there.

“Where did you come from? Who owns you?” She asked, wishing the monkey could talk. It would make their lives so much easier if all the animals could tell them where their homes were.

The monkey gave her a meaningful gaze with his big brown eyes. He was still a little groggy with the pain medicine but he seemed alert enough. Hannah had been keeping him company. She figured he must come from somewhere there were a lot of people because when he was lonely he started screeching. The noise agitated all the other animals – especially the dogs. The snakes didn’t much care.

Growing hungry, Hannah fished around in her handbag, trying to find the mints she had thrown in there three days ago. It wouldn’t be much but it would tide her over for another little while until lunch.

She found the mints and popped one in her mouth. At the same time, she noticed the flyer for the circus. “Clowns are so creepy,” she muttered while the happy, heavily made up faces of the clowns stared back at her.

She read through the flyer:

 

Big Brother’s Big Top Circus. Family Fun for all.

Come see the clowns, the trapeze, the animals.

Come one, come all, to the biggest show on earth.

 

Hannah recalled the last time she had been to a circus. She was only eight years old at the time, her parents were still together, and her grandmother went with them. One of the ponies bit her, a clown sprayed water from a flower on his lapel at her, and the hay made her nose itch.

Among all those not so perfect memories, she could recall that there were a lot of animals travelling with the circus. There was an elephant, a tiger, and a monkey. Hannah looked from the flyer to her little friend, could he be from the circus? They hadn’t reported any animals missing that she knew of, but maybe they hadn’t noticed?

“Hannah, I need your help,” Cory called from reception.

She stuffed the flyer back into her handbag and promised the monkey she would return later for another visit. She found Cory wrangling with a giant spider. It was delivered by a pest control worker in an ice cream container.

“Ugh, spiders now?” Hannah moaned. “Why didn’t they just let it go in the woods or something?”

Cory seemed completely unaffected by the creepy crawly – with emphasis on the creepy. “He’s a Golden Orb spider, not native to this country. If he’s released into the wild then he could play havoc with the eco-system.”

“What are you going to do with him?”

“Find his owner and return him, just like all the others,” Cory replied, mesmerized with the eight legged freak. Even in a sealed container, the spider was too close for Hannah’s comfort. It had a gigantic, bulbous body striped yellow and black like a bee. Her skin crawled at the sight of it.

She avoided the creature until lunchtime, finding things to do everywhere else in the shelter. She couldn’t wait until Jessie caught a glimpse of the thing, her shrieks would probably be heard right across town. She hoped she would be there to see it.

Hannah finally made it to lunch, sitting outside in the sun under the shade of a tree. She pulled out her homemade sandwich and munched on the peanut butter and jelly. She had to put all images of the giant spider out of her mind in order to be able to eat.

She saw Harry coming her way and inwardly groaned. He was carrying a brown paper bag which sparked her curiosity. He caught up and sat beside her on the grass.

“I got you something,” Harry grinned, holding up the bag. Hannah took it reluctantly, despite dying to know what was inside.

She opened the bag and peeked in. It was a perfect pink cupcake with chocolate sprinkles on top. “You got me a cupcake?”

“I know you don’t like pink, but you do like strawberry flavor so I thought it might be okay.”

The act was sweeter than the sugar in the cupcake. Hannah couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. “It’s perfect, thank you.”

“You’re perfect, it’s the least I could do.”

Right at that moment, Hannah wanted to throw her arms around Harry’s neck and cling to him like moss to a rock. She didn’t even remember why it was so important to stay away from him. Perhaps he wasn’t done with trying to win her back after all?

To stop herself doing something stupid, Hannah changed the subject. “Did you know there is a circus in town?”

“Yeah, out on the Parklands, I’ve seen the big tent going up.”

Hannah pulled the flyer out of her handbag and passed it to him. “They have animals there. I was maybe thinking they might be short a monkey.”

Harry nodded eagerly. “Every circus has a monkey, they ride on the elephants, right?”

“I guess so,” she giggled at the imagery. The monkey in the circus she had visited didn’t ride on the elephant but she had seen it on television and in movies.

“Do you want to check it out after our shift? We could go for a bike ride, you know, like we used to?” He looked so hopeful there was no way Hannah could turn him down. Not after running out on him at the bonfire party. And if meant finding the monkey’s rightful home, it would be worth it.

“Sounds like a plan.”

His face burst into a smile. “Or a date?”

“It’s not a date.”

“It could be.”

She smiled, shaking her head at his eagerness. He didn’t miss any opportunity. “It’s not.”