Bobby the Zookeeper

By Isabel Hau

        Bobby grabbed a bucket. Yes he grabbed a bucket like he always did. A mushy substance already laid inside the tin. An orange-ish  pit of glop filled with algae and shrimp. He scratched his head and looked from left to right. He never put it there? The orange glop must have grown legs and wandered into the bucket on its own. That was the only true, realistic, explanation.

        Bucket in hand he wandered past the rhinos with their keratin horns,  the giraffes with the puzzle pieces painted on their necks, and the elephants with long trunks. He nodded to each one, wishing it a good morning and a pleasant afternoon, like he liked to do, but out of the corner of his eye he saw something peculiar. Yes, so peculiar that it sent him turning all the way around like the spinning apple ride at his country faire. The rhinos were almost the same. They still have their beautiful coveted horn but now those horns were not keratin but ice cream cones instead. The puzzle piece pattern on the giraffes had been replaced by stripes; they were thicker than that of the ones on Bobby’s pajamas. Come to mention it, Bobby looked down and oh my. Why was he still wearing his pajamas? He must have forgotten to change out of them before coming into work today. He shook his head in embarrassment but as he did so he saw the elephants. Their trunks were now made of tree trunks wearing swim trunks. The sight made Bobby’s head spin but when he looked down at the bucket in his hands he realized there was still a task at hand.

        He was excited to see his favorite animal in the whole zoo. The ones he also looked forward to taking care of on Wednesday mornings, though now he remembered the calendar in his office did say that today was Sunday, best not to dwell on that. He was here now. Ready to see those balancing creatures with their beautiful pink feathers. His eyes caught them and – what! They were blue? How had they become blue?

        “It’s all alright” he told himself. Besides their vivid shift in color the rest of them was the same as it was. They still held their long necks up high and straight. They still stood on one rigid leg while the other was bent into a triangle like shape. Yes they were still flamingos except for one key detail. 

        How on Earth could this have ever happened? Bobby always made sure to take good and thoughtful care of those birds. He made sure their shelter was stable and their food was nutritious. Their food! Of course! The shrimp filled orange glop in his bucket was sure to return them to their beautiful pink color. Someone must have just fed them the wrong meal. That’s all.

        Bobby reached into his bucket to grab the flamingo’s food but what he found was not what he remembered. The bucket was filled with blueberry muffins and blueberry pies. There was blue cheese and every imaginable kind of blue candy. Blue, blue, and more blue.

        Suddenly, the flamingos got a glimpse of their strange foods, the elephants found the scent of the blueberry muffins, the giraffes heard the the stomps of animals rushing towards the buckets and decided to follow along, the rhinos felt the wind from the quick moment on their skin and because curious. Now a stampede of every animal he had looked over was chasing Bobby and his bucket filled with blue. Bobby ran past exhibits and balloons and popcorn stands. Losing his breath. Losing endurance. He couldn’t run much longer –

       Bobby sat up straight. His mattress below him and his sheets above his legs. The birds chirped outside his window and the sun glowed through his closed curtain. All was well in the world. What a strange dream! Bobby grabbed a bucket.