Round Robin Stories

THE ZOO, CHAPTER 4

Caroline Coleman

 

The penguins were reaching the end of a raucous union meeting as Stacy and her increasingly exasperated father headed towards the compound. From Africa Alive, the giraffes could see agitated flapping of flippers. The penguins were already furious with the hyenas for lacing their fish yesterday. Now they’d heard that the flamingos had flounced, danced and curtsied their way into the next publicity leaflet. Again!

 

“What a bunch of big girls’ blouses!”, grumbled Rosa. “Always showing off. It’s just so unfair. We’re the ones that attract the crowds with our ‘comical walk’ and ‘underwater antics’. They wouldn’t know what had hit them if we stopped being so … so … endearing”. To be honest, she was getting a bit whiny now, and Louis heaved a sigh, “Yes dear!”.

 

So, a work to rule was proposed. When the keepers threw fish into the water, the penguins would refuse to chase them. Instead, they would form an orderly queue, taking the fish only from the keepers’ hands. It would take ages, and give them lots of opportunity to air their grievances.

 

Stacy dashed up to the wall surrounding the penguins’ beach. She was hoping to get a good view of feeding time as the keepers were arriving armed with buckets of fish. She loved the penguins more than anything and had actually been given an adopted one for her birthday. “Daddy, where’s Rosa? She’s my penguin!”. “Erm, I don’t know sweetie”, he said, just a bit distracted. On the telly, he’d seen penguins crossing the Arctic – or was it the Antarctic? – in great long lines. But this seemed very odd. The penguins appeared to be forming a queue. One of them tripped over another one. “Ouch!”, cried Rosa, as her cousin Cuba sniggered.

 

The keepers were puzzled too. They started throwing anchovies into the pool, expecting the penguins to shoot into the water. But there was not a splash, just a noisy stand-off before the leader of the penguins, Krill, shuffled up to them and squawked imperiously. “Come on then, mate. Feed me!”, he said. Not that this was exactly what the keeper heard. “Well, he obviously wants to be fed”, she said, and pulled a fish from the bucket. Krill swallowed the fish whole, secretly quite relieved as he’d been getting ever so hungry. Then he quietly tottered to the back of the queue.

 

“Jeepers, this is going to take for ever”. The keepers were getting worried. They’d lost track of which penguins had been fed and the crowd assembled for feeding time had melted away, grumbling. They’d be in trouble if there were any complaints. Only two people remained – a girl in a red tee-shirt, firing questions at an exhausted looking man.

 

Over in the meerkat enclosure, Brian was getting tense too. It was no fun being next to the lions when they got hungry, and feeding time seemed to have stalled completely. A low, irritable growl gave him the shakes. “What the snout is going on?”, he asked, although nobody was there to hear him. The others had given up waiting and were digging around in the grass for any worms or other titbits they could grub up. He knew he’d have to be careful but maybe he could do a quick bit of reconnaissance. He glanced carefully around the enclosure, then dashed quickly behind a tree, pinning his back close to the bark., like the policeman he’d watched on the Samsung. Satisfied all was clear, he whistled nonchalantly and strolled back to the burrow for his binoculars.

 

“Where do you think you’re going”, snarled a cantankerous Emma. Her stomach rumbled and Brian squeaked in alarm. “He wouldn’t make a bad snack”, thought Emma, although she secretly rather liked Brian. And his nimble fingers were certainly useful sometimes. “Er … er … I was just going to get the binoculars … you know, to see what’s going on. You … you must be starving …”. He trailed off.

 

“It's those bloody penguins. Kicking up a fuss again. It’s taken ages to feed them and nobody else gets fed until they’ve finished. I’d go and p-p-pick up a penguin and t-t-teach it a lesson if I could”, said Emma, sarcastically.

 

Brian listened carefully, his mind racing. After a minute, he sat up straight. “I know, he said”, and disappeared into the tunnel.

​

Round Robin, Chapter 5. Zoo Capers by John Broadhouse

​

Brian the Meerkat retrieved his mobile phone and dialled the Animals Union Representative and explained the situation regarding the Penguins disrupting the animal's feeding times.

“Don’t worry, I will sort this out”, exclaimed Jeff, the Mara from Patagonia; to look at he was a cross between a Rabbit (front half & a Deer back half) and had complete access to all the zoo grounds, it was a privilege the humans bestowed on his breed as they delighted the visitors with their antics and gentle nature.

On the way to the Penguins enclosure with his trainee sidekick Brutus they were spotted by a family of humans who instinctively pointed their mobiles at them for a cute photo, the small human decided to give chase and slipped away from the family in the hopes of catching a Mara.

“What shall we do”, asked Brutus.

“Let’s give him and his family a bit of exercise”, laughed Jeff, “they don’t know that we can reach speeds of up to 45 kilometres per hour so they will never catch us, we will let the little human get very close, then when he thinks he’s got us, we move slightly further away and we keep doing it until he gets tired out, the family of course will have to chase after him, you could say we are doing our bit to keep them fit”.

Eventually the two Mara’s reached the penguin’s enclosure and organised a union meeting behind the living quarters while four large penguin’s stood sentry duty at the front to entertain the visitors.

“Ok, I will tell the Hyenas that if they lace your fish again you will go on hunger strike and disrupt the entire feeding programme, I nearly forgot to mention that the sealions have offered a few of their fish as a token of goodwill if you keep to your allotted feeding times, as their performance was ruined by your behaviour, as most of the humans lost interest having to wait”, said Jeff finalising the  deal.

“I always get results when it comes to food”, smirked Jeff looking at his Rolex, “it’s time we got to the bird flying display, it starts in five minutes, don’t want to miss the flight formation of the macaws but we will have to hide when the big birds of prey come out”.

Four macaws flew in formation above the heads of a throng of people seated on the concrete seats of the amphitheatre, the vivid red, blue, and yellow feathers of their outstretched wings and sleek bodies looked amazing.

“Let’s show these humans what we can do”, squawked Group Captain Polly, “dive to the centre of the arena and then up just above their heads, maybe knock a hat off”.

The Macaws did another circuit and then disappeared behind the amphitheatre; the crowd showed their appreciation by clapping.

Next to be announced was a troupe of small vultures who were lively and very inquisitive and wandered amongst the spectators looking for food.

“This is where we help the vultures”, explained Jeff, “that family, third row in, have their food bag open, so I will wave to the vultures and point to the family, and then we watch the fun begin”.

Four vultures converged on the family and dived into the food bag pulling out sandwiches, crisps and sausage rolls, which they immediately started to eat, some of the crowd gasped while others laughed, but it was all staged and the unfortunate family were zoo employees who were compensated.

“That little caper always draws the crowds in”, remarked Jeff, “the next is also good, it’s Richard the Secretary Bird”.

“He’s a scrawny looking bird”, replied Brutus “doesn’t look if he could do much apart from taking notes and writing letters as he’s a secretary”.

“Very funny, they got called Secretary due to the long protruding feathers behind their ears which look like pencils, secretaries many years ago used to keep a pencil there, anyway Richard kills and eats snakes”.

“What venomous snakes”,

“He’s not fussy, just watch him in action and you will see what that scrawny bird can do”, Replied Jeff.

The keeper introduced Richard and placed a rubber snake on the ground a metre away from him, he instinctively went into hunting mode and gingerly approached the snake, his long featherless legs with their sharp claws and his sharp beak where no match, as Richard grabbed the snake with his feet and bit its neck in lightning speed, tossing it in the air he repeated the process until he thought it was dead.

“Remind me not to get in a fight with him”, exclaimed Brutus.

“The next one out is Arnie the Bald Eagle, so we better make a move as he’s been cautioned a few times for taking the fish from the lake while doing his demonstrations plus killing a Mara that got in his way”.

“Yes, I'm out of here”’, replied Brutus feeling a bit scared, “where to next, I can race you and hopefully reach my top speed”.

“The Sealion house, just to let them know that the Penguins have agreed to the deal”.

​

 

The Zoo - Chapter 6: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

by Matthew Goodwin

​

Audience or not - the Sealions were oddly...flat.

"Good news," said Jeff. "It's a 'Yes' from the Penguins."

He felt a bit awkward.

"You're forgetting the Hyenas," said Brutus. "You know what Hyenas are like..."

Jeff paused, checked his watch. "We'll do the Hyenas next."

"They're a hard sell -"

"I'll talk them round..."

Drew - Sealion spokesman - wasn't listening. His whiskers twitched as he spoke.

"It's that Canary -"

"Vogel?" said Brutus.

"What is it this time?" said Jeff.

"The key," said Drew, "the key to our hatch. He's stolen it..."

"So you're locked in -"

"Worse - before Vogel escaped, he left the hatch unlocked. So now...It's every Sealion for himself. Anything could step out of that hatch. 

"If I was a Mara, I'd have the run of the place. We'd be stir crazy if the hatch was locked for good. But now we can't close it..." Drew trailed off. "Don't tell the Lions."

 

"Gracie!"

Where was she? The Penguins had mostly disappeared. Other than four remaining Penguins outside the enclosure, there was none to be seen.

Half hidden by the bushes, Gracie was lifting what looked like the door to a storm shelter wide open.

"It's Rosa!" said Gracie, "and that other Penguin - the tall one with the bright yellow crest - they're in here."

Gracie disappeared through the hatch.

Steps led down to a platform - Gracie took a seat on the bench along the wall - noticed the empty rails waiting for their train to come in. On the opposite wall, amongst the posters, were the large words 'Platform 23'.

Gracie could hear Philip catching up.

Rosa was sitting just inches from Gracie - Krill was trying his luck with a slightly down-at-heel vending machine.

He looked a little downcast as the Humans wandered in. "This means trouble..."

"It's your fault," said Rosa, "I told you to lock the hatch behind you."

Philip took one look around him, turned to Gracie, briefly took in the Penguins, and looked back at his daughter.

"Gracie..." Philip trailed off, confused. "This wasn't in the brochures..."

"Dad - it's Rosa. She's mine, remember?"

"That's no excuse - I really don't think we're supposed to be here..."

The two conversations continued - both gibberish to each other.

"It's that Canary," said Krill.

"Again?" said Rosa.

"He's stolen the key to our hatch. I would have said something, but...I didn't exactly want to advertise the fact we're wide open and defenceless..."

"They're talking!"

"Gracie - Penguins can't talk."

Gracie crossed her arms, scowled.

The train pulled up.

A synthesized voice poured out of an overhead speaker: Mind. The. Gap.

Rosa rolled her eyes.

Philip looked at the almost empty carriage, then back at the stairs to the hatch.

The two Penguins and the girl boarded.

Philip shrugged, then followed. 

Growler looked up from his knitting. There was something in that look - a challenge.

"That ugly Dog is knitting. He's not even a girl!"

"Gracie..."

Richard lowered the comic he was reading. "Afternoon," he nodded at the two Penguins. He didn't seem too bothered by the Humans.

"Gift Shop?" said Krill.

"I get peckish," said Richard, "thought I might pick up a few snacks. You too?"

The Penguins nodded.

The speaker again. 

Doors. Closing.

The tube train began to move. Gracie took a seat. Philip held a railing.

Richard scanned the train - the only sound now was the tap-tap-tap of Growler's knitting. "Where's Vogel?"

"That Canary?" said Krill. "Where?"

Vogel settled on Philip's shoulder. "Hello?"

"He speaks English!" said Gracie.

"You've got our key!" said Krill.

Vogel ignored him, turned to the girl in the red top. 

"I'm a Canary," said Vogel, "I speak everything." 

He paused, as if mentally extending a hand. Introducing himself.

"Vogel," said Vogel.

Philip hesitated. "Philip," he said.

Vogel looked at Gracie. "You're Stacy, aren't you - we Canaries know these things..."

"Dad calls me Gracie, sometimes Stacy... Sometimes he calls me Tracy. But actually my name's Casey," said Gracie.

Casey.

"Nice to meet you Casey," said Vogel. "You do realise the trouble you've caused?"

"What trouble?" said Casey.

"You're not supposed to be down here. They'll be Hell to pay."

Krill was losing patience - now the Canary was speaking gibberish too.

"You're forgetting our key," said Krill.

Rosa turned to Krill - the expression on her face unmistakable.

This can wait.

"Rosa!" said Casey, "it's me!"

Rosa looked at Vogel. "What's she saying?"

Growler stopped knitting, sighed. Richard went back to his comic.

Vogel shook his head, as if to dismiss the whole thing. 

"You're adopted," he said.