9 Message Received

9 MESSAGE RECEIVED "Look! We found Rosie and her baby!" Annie shouted. She patted Rosie's thick gray hide. The rangers walked slowly and carefully toward Jack, Annie, and the two rhinos. "I named her baby Rosita," said Annie. "Ah, wonderful. She looks to be about a week old," said Shani. "Where did you find them?" asked Jomo. "They found us," said Jack. "They came out from the bushes." He pointed to the thicket. "And Rosie didn't bother you?" said Jomo. "No, not at all," said Annie. "We watched them take a mud bath. Then they followed us back here. And then… well, we all became good friends." "What happened to you?" Jack asked the rangers. "We went on a wild-goose chase," said Shani. "No sightings of a chopper near the West Gate. But

we heard it was spotted over this area. Did you see it?" "Yes," Annie said simply. "You did?" said Shani. "What happened?" "It landed," said Jack. "Right here." "What? It landed here?" said Jomo. "Yep," Jack said. "Oh, my gosh! What happened?" asked Shani. "Did the poachers see Rosie?" "Yep. But we convinced them to leave her alone, and her baby, too," said Annie. "How—how in the world did you do that?" asked Shani. "Uh…well, we just shared some information with them," Jack said. He held up the booklet. "We taught them that the rhino family has been on earth for at least thirty million years," said Annie. "So basically rhinos have as much right to be here as we do." Jomo and Shani looked confused. "And—the poachers listened to you?" said Jomo. Jack shrugged. "Somehow they seemed to get the message," he said. "Yep. Message received," said Annie. "Now we just hope they'll tell other poachers what they learned

here." "I can't believe this," Jomo said, shaking his head. "It sounds like a miracle," said Shani. "It was, sort of," said Jack. "Oh, look. There's your bus," said Jomo, pointing down the road. The Safari Ride was bumping along the road in the distance. "Great. They've probably been very worried about you," said Shani. "Do you mind if we leave you here?" said Jomo. "We have to get a transport crew to help haul Rosie and her calf back to our camp." "Oh, no, we don't mind," said Jack. He was relieved. Now the rangers wouldn't find out they'd never been on the bus. "The other rangers will be overjoyed to see her," said Shani. "And her baby!" "Great," said Annie, "and don't forget to take Speedy with you!" "Oh, we won't!" said Shani. "We're sorry we left him behind. Thanks for taking good care of him." Annie gave the bush baby one last hug. She whispered in his ear.

Speedy jabbered softly to her. Annie whispered again. Speedy jabbered again. "Sorry, guys. We should hurry," said Jomo. "Oh, sure. Bye, Speedy," said Annie. She gave the bush baby to Shani. "Thanks for… well, for whatever you said to the poachers," said Shani. "I can hardly believe they just left," said Jomo. "We hardly believe it ourselves," said Jack. "Well, thank you," said Shani. She and Jomo walked back to their jeep and climbed inside. The jeep started up. It wheeled around and bounced away over the dirt road.

Jack looked over his shoulder. "The bus is getting close," he said to Annie. He put the booklet into his pocket. "We have to go home." "Bye, Rosita," said Annie. She put her arms around the baby rhino and gave her a hug. "Be a good girl." The baby looked as if she was smiling at Annie. "Bye, Mama," Annie said to Rosie. "Your baby is beautiful. Congratulations. Wait right here for the transport team. They'll take you to your friends at the camp." "Bye, Rosie and Rosita," said Jack. Then he surprised himself. He leaned over and kissed Rosie on the side of her leathery gray head. "I hope you live a long, happy life," he murmured. The rhino grunted, but in a warm, friendly way. Jack felt tears come to his eyes. "Okay, let's go!" Jack said, clearing his throat. "We have to hurry!" Jack and Annie turned away from the rhinos and started running in the opposite direction from the bus. They ran down the dirt road. They dashed through the tall yellow grass.

They ran to the rope ladder. Annie climbed up first. Jack followed. Inside the tree house, they looked out the window. The Safari Ride had stopped not far from Rosie and her baby. From the open-air bus, tourists were taking pictures of the two rhinos. Jack heard cries of wonder, oohs and aahs. "That's how it should be," said Annie. "All humans should love rhinos and tell their friends to love rhinos, too." "Yep," said Jack. "I hope that keeps happening for a long time." "Like thirty million more years," said Annie. "At least," said Jack. "Ready?" He picked up the Pennsylvania book. He pointed at the picture of the Frog Creek woods. "I wish we could go there!" he said. The wind started to blow. The tree house started to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still. Absolutely still.