Free Zoo by Tara Elizabeth

I’m sure it’ll happen
eventually though. Gotta get outta here, ya know?”
    He nods. “Yeah.”
    There is a quiet between us, but it’s not
uncomfortable or awkward. I dislike him for who he is not and what
he is supposed to mean for my future. But I manage to put that
aside for just a few minutes as we sit here being two miserable
souls. We are alone in our thoughts, but together in our
circumstances.
    Kale breaks the silence first by saying,
“Hey, that guy’s a total dick, right?”
    I snort and quickly cover my mouth and nose
with my hands, embarrassed. I can’t believe he used the same word
to describe him as I did. “Dick is exactly the right word,” I agree
with him.
    “ Where are you from?” he
asks me, trying to keep up the conversation.
    “ Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
You?”
    A smile plays across his full lips as he
thinks about it. “Hawaii. The Big Island. Man, I miss it already.
The surfing is amazing.” He rubs the right side of his shaved head
and adds, “That’s how they got me. Cracked my head open on some
rocks. I guess I drowned.”
    “ Huh. I applied to the
University of Hawaii. So much for that.” I say more to myself than
to Kale. Missing out on college and moving away were huge changes
that I’d never get to experience. Just as well, I’m way too pale to
live somewhere that tropical. I get burned after ten minutes in the
sun.
    Straightening up and
shifting a little on our hard seat, I decide to tell him about my
car accident. When I finish, I catch myself wondering if he’s from
a similar era. “Wait. What time are you from? I mean, when were you
taken?” I ask, because he may not even know what a car is. No,
that’s not right. Kale surfs. I try to think if I know about how
long ago they invented surfboards. I don’t know the answer to that, but I
do realize that he speaks like he has to be from around my time. I
would’ve acknowledged that something was off—in the way he talks—if
it was different than the way I talk.
    He answers, “2013. You?”
    “ Yeah, me too . . . 2013.
I was born in 1995. When were you born?”
    “ 1993. Why are you asking,
aren’t we all from the same time?” he asks while looking into my
eyes, obviously confused and searching for answers.
    “ No. Janice was taken in
1978, and I heard Greg tell her he was taken in 1955. Auntie
Josephine next door was taken like in the mid 1800’s from England,
and James across the way was taken in 1876 from Colorado.” I leave
out the cavemen next door, because I’ve been too scared to look
back over the rock wall at their enclosure, so I don’t really know
anything about them.
    “ Hmm. Well, I thought at
least the people that share a space would be from the same time. It
just makes more sense.” He runs his hand along his jaw and stares
up at the sky beyond the glass dome. “So when they take us, what do
you think they leave behind for our families? Some kind of
artificial body?”
    That was definitely a good question and one
that I had asked Dick. “That’s exactly what they do. They grow them
and then replace us with them. Freaky, right?”
    “ Well, if they can time
travel, they can probably do a lot of other things we’d never
imagine could be possible. So, that doesn’t surprise me,” he
answers resolutely.
    The thought still makes me uneasy and so
does the fact that I’m actually enjoying talking with Kale.

REMINISCING IS DANGEROUS
     
    The crowds are thin today so there’s not
much in the way of entertainment. Janice and Greg are in the
vegetable garden chatting, and Kale is sitting on a boulder looking
into the cavemen’s enclosure. He keeps laughing so they must be
doing something amusing. Perhaps they’re still trying to start that
fire Janice was telling me about.
    I’m lying on the hard ground, staring at the
cloudless sky, wishing I could breathe the fresh air that blows the
manicured trees from side-to-side. Auntie Josephine’s choice of
song has a calming tone and puts me into