Timelined for Sunday August 30th.
Miles: Miles paid the ticket price for both of them and they entered the zoo, unfolding their maps. "Okay, are we going to the Areas of Africa or the South American Jungle?"
Jessica: She frowned a little while she thought that through, "South American Jungle might have more spiders..."
Miles: "Left being South America, right being Africa. Also, if we start left, we get to the South Pole animals right away which means penguins. After Africa, you can go to them, but you gotta cross through the snakes."
Miles: He nodded. "That's true, but there's an insect area way at the north of the zoo, see?" He pointed on her map. "It's a whole a building filled with insects and then a faux-cave filled with cave animals. Even bats."
Jessica: "Okay... well... we're going to see everything, right? So let's just pick a direction and start walking?"
Miles: "South America?" He said then happily. "We can go see the toucans!"
Miles: They headed off to the South American exhibit.
Jessica: Once she got used to the noise of the place, she actually had a fairly pleasant experience at the zoo. It was so cool to see everything so close and watch them move. It was much better than books or tv.
Miles: The penguins were adorable how they waddled over and Miles read the plaques with tidbits of information out loud, partially for Jess, mostly for his own amusement. "This is great."
Miles: "I love this place, the animals are so awesome!" He pointed at the wallabys as they crossed through "Down Under" section. "Aawwww, they're adorable!"
Jessica: Jess smiled, they were kind of cute. "When I was little I wanted a pet wallaby for a while... I wanted lots of different pets."
Miles: "I would take one home right now if it was legal." He looked around carefully. "... You think I can get away with it?"
Jessica: "Not if we're going to see everything else here today. I think people would notice if you stuffed one under your shirt."
Miles: "Aw, man." He smiled despite his disappointment and they moved on, Miles offering to stop briefly to go into the gift shop.
Jessica: She laughed a little but headed on into the gift shop because she wanted to see what was in there.
Miles: "Oh... mygosh. There's a stuffed spider." He ran through the massive gift shop, up to the shelving of plush animals, and took the plush spider off the shelf.
Miles: He took it down and gave it to her "Enjoy?"
Jessica: She grinned and took it. She was so taking that home with her. It was soooooft. She hugged it. She looked around to see what else they had that had spiders on it.
Miles: "Oh wow stuffed otters! So cute!" he took two of them off and laughed at how if you pushed them together, their little paws velcroed together, as if they were holding hands.
Miles: "Adorable."
Jessica: Jess grinned, finding a coffee mug that also had a spider on it. She would get that too.
Miles: "Jess! Look!" He shook a giant plush octopus. It was about the size of his abdomen (not counting the tentacles).
Jessica: She laughed at that too, "Where would you put it?"
Miles: "I dunno... On my bed? On Johnny's?"
Jessica: She giggled again, "Well if you want it..."
Miles: "I do. I truly do." he took the tentacles and wiggled them at Jessica.
Jessica: She laughed, "Well you have your new sticky friend and I'll have mine." She hugged her spider plush again and went to go and pay.
Miles: He let her buy the spider, then he purchased his octopus. Next the two of them headed out to the cave aviary. "Bats!" he cackled. "Awesome!'
Jessica: Jess paused at the bats and cringed. "You're going to hate me but... can we not stand here?"
Miles: He frowned. "They're behind glass..." he said quietly. "And there's cave-spiders that glow in the dark and cave sea creatures too..." He gave her the puppiest of puppy eyes.
Jessica: "It's not the bats, Miles... it's the noise they're making..." she winced.
Miles: "Ooooh, I'm sorry! I had no idea!" He guided her away from the cave and then to the Marshlands. "Cranes?"
Jessica: "Cranes are better, not so earsplittingly high-pitched." She nodded, "Sorry about that... you can go back in if you want. I'll just wait here."
Miles: "Nah, you've seen one bat you've seen 'em all." He said, lying to himself. They had three new Flying Foxes. It was depressing to think about how adorably silly they would look hanging upside down.
Miles: "And flamingos!" He pointed. "You ever do the drunken flamingo?" He wrapped his right leg around his left leg and then tucked his hands under his pits, forming faux-wings. Then he tried to keep balance after leaning to once side. "Wh-whoa! Whoaa!" He almost toppled and then caught his footing.
Jessica: "Okay... if you're sure..." she chewed her lip a little then giggled at his display. "You're crazy."
Miles: "Crazy like a fox!" He said excitedly.
Jessica: She smiled and gave him a playful shove, moving to look at some more the the animals.
Miles: Miles tailed Jess as she led the way through the zoo. The Canopy exhibit was interesting, but they were coming into the Marco Polo: Discovering Asia exhibit. "Oh, Jess! Snow leopards, moon bears, all sorts of fun things in here! Look! Red pandas!"
Jessica: She paused to look at the red pandas and smiled. They were so clumsy looking.
Miles: "And lemurs! Look at the lemurs! I want to move-it-move-it! I want to move-it-move-it!"
Jessica: Jess wasn't sure why he was suddenly singing but the lemurs were awesome. She smiled at them, watching them pick up bits of fruit with their tiny hand-like paws and chew away.
Miles: "I love the zoo." he said, dreamy-eyed. "How awesome is the zoo?"
Jessica: "It's great!" she gave him a genuine smile.
Miles: "Monkeys! Jess, monkeys!" he pointed to the primates. "Okay, apes, whatever."
Jessica: She moved to look at them too, watching them move about their enclosure. Nature was perfect. Everything worked how it was supposed to...
Miles: "I love their people-fingers and people-expressions and people-tendencies. It's as scary as it is amazing." He watched the orangutans lumber about, one of them rolling around in a blanket.
Jessica: She smiled, "They're fantastic."
Miles: "Okay, the last exhibit... insects!" He pointed to the small cave-like hut.
Jessica: She could barely contain her excitement. She'd been anticipating this the most. And it didn't disappoint. They had everything! She was like a kid in a candy store.
Miles: Miles simply watched Jessica's reaction rather than look for himself. He had seen them all before and to him, bugs were bugs were bugs.
Miles: But Jess' reaction to every single one was more than priceless.
Jessica: She saved the black widow spider for last. She'd always wanted to see one up close. They were her favourite. She stood in front of the case and stared at it. It was so small.... but so beautiful.
Miles: "They're pretty awesome, huh?" he asked.
Miles: He was tempted to tap on the glass, but he knew better.
Jessica: "They're amazing... It's a shame they're stuck behind the glass..." She wanted to hold one. She had no fear of a bite - she'd be immune to the venom anyway.
Miles: "Yeah... that's one zoo animal I'm not tempted to take home, sorry." He said. "Why don't you get a job at the zoo?"
Jessica: "You need all kinds of qualifications... and the hours would clash horribly with classes too - that's why I had to quit my job at the library...." She continued to stare at the black widow spider.
Miles: "Hmm..." he tried, that's what counted.
Jessica: "It's okay... they'd probably flip out about me handling them even if it was my job too...."
Miles: "Well... you'd be good at it if it was your job." He said, sounding rather sure. "You seem to be good at handling sensitive things." He spotted cotton candy. "Not to get you off track, but there's cotton candy, be right back." He snuck off to grab some for them.
Jessica: She glanced after him then went back to looking at the spiders. It was rare to find people that appreciated them like she did so she didn't mind so much that he'd left her with them. "Maybe one day...." she muttered.
Miles: Miles turned back up with two cones of cotton candy. He held one out to her. "Don't ask, just eat." He showed her how, taking a bite at it like an ice cream cone, but being sure to rub the fluff off his gums and suck it in to chew.
Jessica: Jess blinked at the fluffy sugar, taking the offered cone and plucking a bit off with her fingers to try after juggling her bag from the gift store. It was sweet.... but not unpleasant. She smiled.
Miles: "Cool, huh?" He waggled his eyebrows. "It's like eating cobwebs... sugary cobwebs!"
Jessica: She laughed a little, "Cobwebs probably wouldn't dissolve so well but I guess the texture is similar..." she tore herself away from looking at the spiders.
Miles: "Well... not like my cobwebs." He winked and shot a small wad at the ground just as a young boy in flip flops stepped forward. His flip flop came off and he frowned, confused, turned back, and tried to tear it off the pavement. He couldn't. He began to show frustration.
Miles: Miles was caught in between feelings of guilt and amusement.
Jessica: Jess took pity on the kid and went to help.
Miles: Miles felt worse then, and decided he'd wave to the kid and said "sorry." The boy was confused even more, and a little creeped out. He jogged away, calling "Mooooom!"
Jessica: Jess sighed a little. People here really didn't seem to like mutants.
Miles: Miles shrugged. "Sorry, didn't expect him to get so upset by it. It's much funnier when it's Johny."
Jessica: "Well he's just a kid.... and you know... mutant phobia...." she picked at her cotton candy some more.
Miles: "Or I scared the shit out of him by sticking his flip-flop to the pavement for no reason? I mean, yeah, a prank is a prank, but that's not your usual prank."
Jessica: "Well there's both levels to it... the fact it happened and the how..." she nodded to the small cafe in the distance. "Let's go sit down for a while..."
Miles: "Y'okay." He followed her to it, being sure to wave to the kid again, when Jess wasn't looking, which just forced the kid to bury his face even deeper into his mother's hip. She ignored it, staring at the giraffes and waving to her older, darker-haired, texting daughter to watch them with her.
Jessica: She moved over to the counter to order a drink and glanced to check Miles was still with her. "Do you want anything?"
Miles: "Um.... I was gonna get a Jungle Juice Soda in the collector's cup. Should I get panda, otter, snake, or penguin?"
Jessica: "Uh... I don't know.... which one do you like more?"
Miles: "... Otter." He chose the otter cup and got his drink on.
Jessica: She smiled, getting her own drink and moving to take a seat.
Miles: Miles regretted not getting the seat, but he supposed being a gentleman was more than chairs and greetings. "Hey, today has been pretty awesome, huh?"
Jessica: "Yeah... I've really had fun... thanks for this..." she gave him another smile.
Miles: "Hey, anytime." He held up his otter cup for a toast.
Jessica: She raised her cup to his, "I'm sure there's plenty of other things on the list that I haven't done."
Miles: "You ever been on the Superman roller coaster?" He asked with a raised brow
Jessica: "Have I ever been on the what?"
Miles: "Okay... that settles it. We're going." He checked his watch. "We have time. We have to leave the zoo now though, okay?"
Jessica: "Um... okay?" She had no idea what she was agreeing to but she supposed it didn't matter. Experience was experience...