I Heard Animals' Voices novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Rounds

Derrick's rounds started at eight and covered forty-one enclosures.

By ten o'clock I had learned that every animal in the zoo had an opinion about him.

I had not expected to be the one to deliver them.

The flamingos went first.

They stood on one leg in a pink row along the pond, and the biggest one watched Derrick cross the bridge with his bag.

"That's him," she said. "He apologizes to every needle."

"What?" I said.

"Every time. He says sorry to the needle before he says sorry to us. We think he's confused, but we like him."

"The flamingo says you apologize to your needles," I told Derrick.

He stopped on the bridge with his hand still on the rail.

"It's a habit," he said.

"She says it's nice."

"It's a habit," he said again, and walked a little faster.

The camel was next.

He lived alone in a dry paddock with a sign that said Bactrian, Do Not Feed.

He had the face of a man who has been put on hold.

"The tour guide says my hump is fat," he told me. "It is not fat. It is a reserve."

"The camel says the tour guide is wrong about his hump," I said.

"I'll speak to the tour guide."

"He also says you're the only one who asks before you touch it."

Derrick looked at the camel.

The camel looked at Derrick with great dignity.

"It's his hump," Derrick said. "I always ask."

"He says thank you," I said, and he did not blink, but his ears went a little pink.

"You can stop passing that stuff on," he said.

"I can't," I said. "It's a rule. It's the goose."

"What goose?"

"When I was seven, a goose asked me to tell the man next door that he was very fond of his hat."

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