Bam and Boo were twins. They were also
red pandas. In their opinion, BrookRock Zoo was the best place in the world.
Mi-Mi, their mom, often told stories about living in Nepal. Bam and Boo were
born there, but they liked BrookRock much better. But Bam and Boo dreamed about
VISITING other places. This is the story about them. and also, discovering the
love of Neapolitan ice-cream.
It was a rainy March morning. Bam was taking a quick nap; Boo was trying
to stare down the people with umbrellas. It was mostly kids who looked bored, wet,
tired, and just plain miserable. Boo swatted a fly. “Another field trip. Poor
human cubs. Always on a rainy day,”
She groaned. Bam grumbled a little,
gave a huge yawn, and sat up. “I’m hungry!” he said,
“when’s dinner?” Boo thought a minute,
then answered, “not for hours, besides, you just had breakfast, how are you
hungry already? We’ll have to wait and see if we get a snack today,”.
Just then, Boo’s favorite keeper came
in. Her name was April. She had long black ringlets that spilled down her back
and looked wonderful with the tan of her zookeeper uniform. She was usually
listening to Jazz or pop songs in Japanese. Today it was J-Pop.
Boo froze. Her
eyes got wide. “oh no,” she whispered.
“health check, or something,” Bam cocked his head to one side and raised an
eyebrow. “So?” he asked, “it isn’t so
bad. They weigh us and then then they poke us or whatever. I forget.” But Boo
shook her head. “I just don’t like them. It’s weird in that room, and they
don’t just poke us, they shine lights at us; look down our throats; peer into
our fur; and besides, it smells like medicine, which they sometimes give us
with that pointy thing that ouches.” By this time April had reached them. She
put them in their funny looking carrier and said, “it’s been a long time since
you two had a bath, huh? Let’s fix that!”
Boo bit her lip.
“it’s worse than I thought, Bam. It’s
not a checkup. It’s a bath.”
