THE SAN DIEGO Zoo is huge. And it’s only one part of Balboa Park, a sprawling, monster campus of museums and parks and such. And it’s far away enough from Waterfront Park to mean taking another stupid bus.
Ugh!
I squirm in my sticky plastic seat. Liberty turns and stares down the lady across from me, who’s shooting us dirty looks. “Stop staring at him,” she snaps. “Haven’t you seen car sickness before?”
“That’s the trouble, kid,” the lady says, glancing at me nervously. “I have.”
It’s 2:35 p.m. when the bus coughs us out at the zoo parking lot. Time’s a wasting. Because we don’t know what else to do, or where else to go, we join the hordes at the tickets-and-information window.
The people behind us keep knocking the back of my knees with their huge stroller full of drooling infants, and the family ahead has a drooling toddler, too—it keeps staring at us over its father’s shoulder. The line is taking forever. I’m about to explode with impatience, when, suddenly, a burst of music blares over the speakers, and a bunch of costumed mascots come out to entertain the crowd.
A striped tiger holds a sign for the Tiger Trail. A couple of black-and-white pandas show a banner for the panda exhibit. And then this mangy, skinny orange bunny with ridiculous floppy ears strolls out a side gate. He’s not holding any sign—he just stands there, scanning the crowd with his hands on his hips.
I look at Liberty. She looks at me.
“That’s got to be him—Captain Carrot!” she says. “Go on! Go over to him, Stanley!”
I squirm. “That’s your job!”
Liberty puts her hands on her hips. “No way. I’ve done most of the talking all day.”
“So what?” I say, feeling nervous. “I solve the clues, and you do the talking. That’s our deal.”
Liberty scowls at me but she goes over to the rabbit. He has no idea that she’s behind him, so when she taps his shoulder, he jumps a foot in the air. I laugh as I watch her flutter her hands around, talking fast. He stands perfectly still, listening to her explain the Zoo Crew clue. Then the rabbit puts a small piece of paper and a golden coin into Liberty’s hand. She jumps up and down and does a little dance.
And I start to smile.