“I don’t blame you.” Tori scooped up a raisin. She looked toward the attic stairs. “It’s cool up there.”
Benita wiped her mouth. “Let’s go.”
Luke took the last crumb. Then he followed them up.
Heat blasted in the attic.
“I thought you said it was cool.” Benita wiped her forehead.
“I meant neat,” Tori said.
She was right. Luke could see the zoo from the filthy window. All of it.
Alex was there, leaning against the fence. He was talking to somebody…or maybe one of the animals.
Tori pointed. “I love the jaguars. Their spots look like roses. I read that they’re called rosettes.”
Luke looked down at the jaguars. Dad was just beyond them in an empty field.
Three kids were looking at the jaguars too. They were eating popcorn.
“From zebra boxes!” he said.
the Blue Zoo Stand. Everything’s blue. Ice cream, cotton candy. All except the boxes.”
Luke dived down the attic stairs.
He raced to the Blue Zoo Stand.
CHAPTER 8
LUKE ran along the zoo path. He passed Dad in the field.
He circled around another field.
Tigers lay there. They stared at him with their great yellow eyes. One of them yawned.
Nana-Next-Door was watching them.
“Gorgeous, aren’t they?” she said.
“My grandfather works at a zoo. He says that their stripes are like fingerprints. Every tiger is different.”
Nana-Next-Door nodded. “If only your grandfather were here. He could talk to a group of kids with me.”
“I wish he was here too,” Luke said.
But he was wasting time. He began to run again.
He slid to a stop at the Blue Zoo Stand. Bins were filled with blue popcorn and cotton candy. The popcorn smelled great…or was it the cotton candy?
A teenaged boy leaned against the counter. He wore a Blue Zoo cap. OMAR was written across the front.
Omar’s father was at the other end of the stand. He was scooping blue ice cream into a cup.
Omar leaned forward. “You’re the new kid on Zoo Lane. Right?”
“I’m Luke. You live on Zoo Lane too?”
“Down at the end,” Omar said. “Can I help you?”
“Is anyone looking for a zebra box?”
“Are you kidding?” Omar pointed to the litter basket.
Inside were dozens of boxes. Some were crushed. Others had ice cream smears.
Luke shook his head. “It’s a new box. It has a dollar inside.”
Omar stared at him. “Sometimes I put money in a box. Maybe it’s mine.”
Alex wanted the box! And now Omar!
“What else was inside?” Luke asked.
Omar pushed his cap back. “I put junk in them.” He stopped to think. “A Blue Zoo cookie?”
Luke shook his head.
“Maybe a pen.”
“No.”
“A dollar anyway,” Omar said.
“I’ll think about it,” Luke said.
It was time for lunch.
All that popcorn was making him hungry.
“See you later,” he told Omar.
He walked along the path.
He thought of Abuelo and the zoo in Florida.
They’d been in Florida for a year. But he’d made friends in two minutes.
He wouldn’t be walking alone.
Dad was coming toward him. “That field would be the perfect place…” He stopped to take a breath.
Luke waited.
“…for giraffes.”
Yes!
“There are plants with thorns,” Dad said.
Luke knew that giraffes had thick tongues and lips…
Thick enough to chew on plants with thorns.
Abuelo was worried about the giraffes. Ana trees were being cut down. Giraffes couldn’t eat their leaves anymore.
Dad must have been thinking the same thing. “Zoos have to help,” he said.
CHAPTER 9
THE next morning, Luke opened his eyes. Mom was standing in the doorway. “You might find a surprise here,” she said.
“What surprise?”
“You’ll have to see.”
Then she was on her way to the kitchen.
Dad was calling. “Hurry, Luke. You have to see this.”
Luke stumbled out of bed. He found a pair of shorts.
Benita was in the hall. “I forgot,” she sang.
Luke waited.
She took a breath. “Tori’s brother might be missing a zebra box,” she said.
Another person! Luke nodded as he went past.
He and Dad didn’t stop to eat. Mom gave them bottles of juice and muffins.
Luke brought the zebra box with him. But he wasn’t thinking of that now.
He and Dad walked to a field that looked almost like a desert. “Meerkats,” Dad said. “New to this new zoo.”
“I don’t see any animals.” Luke bit into a blueberry muffin.
Dad put his hand on his shoulder. “Wait. They’re still in their burrows.”
Burrows? Was this Mom’s surprise?
How could it be? Luke knew that there were animals who dug holes at night. They’d sleep there until morning.
Dad nudged him. “Here they come.”
A pile of them. Thirty? Forty?
They scampered around, searching for their own breakfast of insects, or maybe lizards.
All except one. It stood there looking up at the sky.
“A lookout for enemies,” Dad said. “Eagles, maybe. Meerkats watch out for each other.”
How lucky they were to have friends, Luke thought.
Dad patted his arm. “I’ll see about a zoo that might send giraffes.” He took the path to the office.
Luke took the last bite of muffin.
Then he went after Dad. He’d promised to help.
Inside, he lugged small evergreen trees into a birthing room. Dad left his computer and they carried in ferns and little trees. The room looked like a small jungle.
“Just what a puma mother wants when she has her babies,” Dad said.
Luke looked around at the green room with its sweet smell.
Abuelo would have loved it.
Luke loved it.
But it was time to think about the zebra box.
Whose was it?
Alex’s?
Tori’s brother’s?
Omar’s?
Omar had all those zebra boxes at the Blue Zoo Stand.
Maybe he kept money in one. It would be easy to mix them up.
Luke hurried to the Blue Zoo Stand.
Omar was alone today. His mouth was filled with blue popcorn. He held out a handful.
“Have some,” said Omar.
“Great popcorn.” Luke slid the box across the counter. “I brought this back for you.”
Omar reached under the counter. He pulled out another box and rattled it.
Luke looked inside. A pen. A couple of pennies. A dollar.
Omar grinned. Hs teeth were blue from popcorn. “My dad found mine. Thanks anyway.”
Luke nodded. Who was next?
He sighed. Alex, he guessed.
He wandered down the lane.
