The funny ape told me that this was my new home. Ok, it was not a cage. It was surrounded by glass walls that I would never be able to climb. The enclosure was very big and it would take me days to explore it. It looked like a summer camp. There was a cabin and lots of trees and a small river that went through the enclosure. It would just be like camping. The difference is that strange aliens would look at my every move and I would never go home.
I sat on a tree stump and started crying. I could not understand how I was now in this position? I was on exhibition for all species in the universe to see. I was a zoo animal that was locked in a glass cage. I was a pet of the universe! This must have been against so many human rights! I did not consider that humans were not important here. We were just an attraction. I must have cried for a long time on the tree stump, I did not realize that a crowd of aliens were watching me through the glass. I turned around so they could not see me.
I could not use the rest of my life crying and being mad at myself. I had to accept the position that I was in. I had to make the best of it. Once that they did not starve me or hurt me, I could survive. I just had to get used to being a tourist attraction. I had to get used to being in a confined place. I should have been used to this, as I always confined myself to the library or my bedroom. I could make this a good experience. If I ever returned to earth, I would be famous and I would know more than the species of the universe than anyone else.
Until then, I just had to be brave.
I heard a voice welcome me and when I looked around, I saw a lady in a nice dress behind a tree. I suddenly became very shy and at the same time, it was nice to know that I was not alone. The woman could see that I was shy and smiled. She came and sat next to me. She stated that it looks like we would be living together. She hoped that I would like her and she would do all she could to help me here. The woman's name was Sandra and she was here for many years.
”I was 17 when I came here,” she said, ” and despite that, we are a tourist attraction in a zoo, this saved my life. I came from a bad family and I was in the wrong crowd. I drank a lot and even used drugs. Then I was abducted by the Aliens and came here. It is so good that now I have company. Things are not that bad here. We have a lot of space and you just have to get used to strange creatures watching us. The human exhibition is the most popular one, so we are sort of celebrities. We can escape being looked at as we do have privacy.”
Sandra showed me around the enclosure. It was like being in paradise. We had everything that we could ever wish for. There were lots of clothes and the food we wanted. The cabin was like a hut except that people could look in. We did have privacy in the toilets, or when we needed to change clothes. We could take a bath without anyone watching. I think that this was hard to get used to. I was always invisible to others and now I was the centre of attention. Sandra told me that I would get used to it.
It turned out that the Ape creature was our zookeeper. His name was Zenko. He could also speak our language but at times, this made me laugh as he sounded like a chipmunk. His job was to make sure we were well taken care of and he tried to give us everything that we wanted. He even came with books and paper when I told him that I missed them. He was nice for being a zookeeper, but that was also because we did not cause him any trouble. He told me the worse thing was a zoo animal that wanted to escape.
This did not mean we always got along. He told me that for a child, I was stubborn and had a lot of spirit. Other keepers at the zoo would not like this. They would get rid of my spirit. He knew that I planned to escape somehow and warned me that this would be the worse thing that could happen. If I did escape, where would I go? How would I even get back to Earth?
I on the other hand could get mad at him. I would tell him all humans had a spirit and we did not like being owned. We would always try to escape. I would get mad at him saying that no one owned me. I was here against my will. I would pound his chest and tell him to stop calling me an animal. I was a human and we had intelligence. Looking back, I do not know why he did not punish me or hate me. Zenko had a lot of patience!
Sandra did not even always understand me. She thought that I was a dreamer and did not understand why I planned to escape. Sandra had no intention of escaping. She was quite happy in the zoo and there was nothing that she wanted on Earth. She would be dead if she was never abducted. The only thing that she missed was having a family. Maybe the zoo expected us to be like a family.
Then it hit me. The zoo knew that Sandra wanted a family. This was why they abducted me. They wanted Sandra and me to be a family. If she did not want one, I would never have been abducted. This made me decide that Sandra would never get her that wish. I would never consider her as family.
Zenko seemed to know this and one day he told me that I seemed to burden myself with bitterness. He suggested that I would be happier if I accepted the position I was in and tried to make the most out of it. I was a child, so it was hard for me that true happiness was the one thing in life that people wanted. Zenko wanted me to submit. He did have a point. It would be better if I tried to be happier.
Life at the zoo was in a way like being on summer camp. I would wake up and get washed and find what clothes I would wear that day. Then Sandra and I would eat breakfast and discuss what we should do that day. It would be different things. We could make some creative art piece, fish, swim or have a campfire. I came to enjoy it when we would just relax and lay on the ground and look up at the sky and talk. Sandra was not as bad as I thought she would be. I could see that she cared about me and she protected me.
I did have time for myself. Zencho always had new books and I would sit and read them for hours. Sometimes I would discuss with Sandra or Zenko what I read. This would make them smile because they loved how I enjoyed reading and they both thought that I was smart.
Zenko was our zookeeper and at times this was hard to see. He admitted that he did not like the idea of species locked in a zoo, as they deserved freedom. His goal as a zookeeper was to help us be happy and show that he did respect us. I must admit that he kept this promise. In a way, Zenko spoiled us with everything from clothes to food. He would spend a lot of time speaking with us and would give us advice. The best thing was at night, he would let us come out of the enclosure, where we would walk around the zoo and look at the other species. This was freedom and yet the strange thing is that I always felt safer when we were back at our enclosure.
Sandra told me that we were very lucky to have Zenko. She heard that some other zookeepers were mean and did not respect or like the creatures they were taking care of.
”Remember,” she said, ”The Zoo still owns us. We are here to make them money. They want us to be a popular attraction for the zoo guests. The heads of the zoo do not care if we are happy or not. They do care that people will pay for a ticket to come and watch us. We are lucky to have Zenko, however, he cannot protect us from everything. The worse thing that can happen is that we no longer become valuable.”
Sandra started crying and told me that there was a boy here once. He got very sick and was removed from the enclosure. Zenko admitted that when species get sick or no longer are popular, the zoo moves them to an area where they are experimented on. I hugged Sandra as she said she was so worried about what pain and agony that her friend went through.
This is why she was so worried about me. She said that as a human, we could get any strange virus by the other species here and our immune system would not know what to do. This means that we had to protect each other and we had to stay healthy.
This warning was in the back of my head all the time. At times I would have a nightmare that I would no longer be valuable to the zoo and they would experiment on me. I did my best to think about how things were and try to be happy in the enclosure.
In time, I did not worry that much. I knew that we were a popular exhibit as there was always a crowd of species looking through the glass. I even noticed some merchandise with my picture on it. This would make Sandra joke that I was the zoo's celebrity. Even Zenko admitted that I was the most popular attraction at the zoo. This was so strange for me. It should have disgusted me that I was the most popular pet, but to be honest, it also made me proud.
Sandra and I were picking flowers one day and she asked me if I still wanted to escape. It was a long time since I even considered escaping. I had to admit that I accepted the new life that I had. For the first time in my life, I was happy!
That night when Sandra tucked me in bed, I called her mom. I could see her smiling and tears in her eyes. I smiled back as I realized that I now considered Sandra as my family.
The next morning, Sandra was in a good mood as she woke me up. I was so tired and felt like I was burning up. I moaned that I wanted to stay in bed.
Sandra felt my forehead and had a very worried look on her face.
To be continued
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