Moments later both Tim and Will

 Page 6.

Moments later both Tim and Will stood astonished as they now looked down at “Bonzo” who sat at the base of a large cypress tree inside his enclosure swallowing down the last bite of Will's apple. Tim was speechless but Will shouted out at the top of his voice, “It's real, it's real, we were Chimpanzee's”. Not waiting for even a second the boys tied the Giraffe, and then the Elephant and together they tried to out roar each other as two male lions should do when their not sleeping, eating or making babies?. With just two choices left it wasn't even close when it came to becoming a Hippopotamus who pooped a lot or the majestic Eagle destined to soar the blue skies free! Tim and Will were just about to experience those joys briefly as that of a Hippopotamus when they were jumped from behind. There reeking of liquor staggered out Opus but not before the boys instinctively hid their Eagle crackers in their pockets. Opus tightened his grip around Tim's collar and ordered Will to follow them back to the office at the Lion House. Just as trio neared the building the office door suddenly flung open and out crawled a woman who appeared thin, pale and in desperate need of some help.

Tim felt a connection to the woman who lay at his feet and knelt down beside her as the elderly man in the safari suit and Sergeant Collins walked outside each holding a beer and laughing. Opus inched toward Tim and quickly grabbed his box of animal crackers but Will held his box out to Sergeant Collins and said, “Here Sir, I saved you some”.  The man in the safari suit walked over to the fallen woman and gave her a kick and in a devilish tone said, “Sally Rogers, you've served our purpose now get out here before I feed you to the lions”. Opus and Sergeant Collins had worked up quite an appetite with their morning activities and they both gobbled down the two remaining Hippopotamus crackers like a pair of hungry hyenas? And no sooner had those crackers disappeared so did they. Something instinctively raged throughout Tim's body and he sprung at the elderly like a leopard and before he even had a chance to say, “where did they go”, he to disappeared with the help of an extra Hippopotamus crackers administered by Tim that mysterious appeared in what was believed to have been an empty box? Will wasn't far behind and he thanked Tim for their short companionship as his last words where  “I will never forget you my friend any may we meet again”, with that Tim watched a mighty Eagle soaring north and then it vanished into the clouds.

Tim held his drug stricken mother whom he hadn't seen for over two years and she lay still in his arms almost wasted to nothing with the stench of death surrounding her spirit. Overcome with grief and sadness of what had become of someone he loved so much, Tim cradled his mother and brought his Eagle cracker to her lips and watched another magnificent bird drift skyward and disappear. Suddenly Tim felt a light tap on his right shoulder and there stood Mr. Gibbs grinning to ear to ear but for Tim it was a feeling of great loss and anything from joy or happiness. Mr. Gibbs said with a smile, “Don't worry Tim, she'll be back and good as new”. Tim could barely reply as he choked back the tears, “But it was the last one and that's forever, right?”.  Mr. Gibbs sat next to Tim and explained that love between a Mother and Son is constant no matter what would come between them and it would be that very love that would return her home someday as a new and better person if that's what he really wanted. Mr. Gibbs assured Tim never to give up hope, not even for Opus, Sergeant Collins and Mr. Safari suit who were presently enjoying the company of Tiny the Hippopotamus who's been a bachelor for years but now has three new girlfriends? Tim learned a lot about life in his short fourteen years and could have saved himself but choose not to and it wasn't long before his mother did return home but until she did he worked at the Crittenden Zoo and maybe someday you may hear Tim's voice calling out, “Crackers, Crackers get your Animal Crackers”.

The end