Chapter 3

Chapter three, Stay calm, Hankster, I said to myself as I felt the panic start in my toes and shoot out the top of my head. My neck felt like it was on fire. I blinked hard and looked around. I asked myself, Hank, does anything look familiar? And I can honestly say, the answer was NO. Where was my head when I was walking to the bathroom? I guess it had taken a trip to Saturn, which is my favorite planet because of the rings. But Saturn was sure not helping me now. And then, I saw a big map of the zoo posted in a glass case. Problem solved. I would just check the map. Except for the small problem that I can't read maps. But I wasn't

going to let that little detail get me down. I walked confidently over to the map and studied it very carefully. There were blue trails, green trails, yellow ones, and red ones. All I had to do was find the one with the snack bar on it. With my finger, I traced each trail to the end. And then panic grabbed me by the neck again when I realized that each one of the trails had a snack bar on it. I ask you, why do there have to be so many snack bars at one zoo? How many snacks does a person need? I stood there and took a deep breath. My mom always says that taking a deep breath will let your brain work better. And sure enough, a great thought jumped into my mind. Maybe I can't read a map. And maybe I don't know left from right. But I can speak English, and so could everyone else in the zoo. All I had to do was find an adult and ask them to take me to the snack bar closest to the gorillas. That was one great idea, if I do say so myself. I actually reached my hand over my

shoulder and patted myself on the back. I looked around for a friendly face, and decided to ask a friendly-looking couple who both had cameras around their necks. "Excuse me," I said, using my best manners. "Do you think you could show me the way to the gorillas?" They looked at each other and shrugged. "Je ne parle pas anglais," said the man. "Huh?" I said. He repeated something that sounded even more foreign. How could it be? Of all the visitors to the zoo, I picked the two who don't speak a word of English. "Gracias, anyway," I said. I didn't think they were speaking Spanish, but I thought I'd throw that out there to impress them. They shrugged again and walked away. I stood there, trying to figure out what to do next.

The only idea that came to me was that I might never leave the zoo. And I wasn't exactly thrilled about spending the night with a bunch of roaring lions close by. I felt a hand on my shoulder and spun around, hoping it was Ms. Flowers. It wasn't. It was a woman wearing a brown uniform with a Wild About Gingerbread T-shirt. "I like gingerbread, too," I said to her, "but I have to say I'm not wild about it." "I don't understand," she said. "Why are we talking about gingerbread?" "Because that's what it says on your shirt —Wild About Gingerbread." She looked down at her shirt, then back at me, then burst out laughing. "It says Wild About Giraffes," she said. "Not gingerbread."

"At least I was close," I said. "They both start with a G. I'm not much of a reader." "I wasn't at your age, either," she said, still smiling. "But it didn't stop me from doing something I love. I'm Nora Bicks," she went on. "I work here at the zoo with the giraffes and the elephants. You seem to be lost." "I'm only half lost," I said. "The half that can't find the snack bar where my class is waiting." "Is it the one near the gorillas? With the great frozen lemonades?" "That's exactly the one!"

"I can take you there. I just have to make a quick stop at the elephant enclosure and then check on Elsie." "Oh, is Elsie your mom?" "Actually, Elsie is my mom's name. That's why I named our newest elephant after her. Elephant Elsie just arrived at the zoo yesterday. We're keeping her separated from the others until we know she's comfortable here at her new home. Come on. We'll say hi, and I'll get you back to your class." As we followed the yellow line along the path, I couldn't believe that I was actually going to see a real live elephant up close. I couldn't stop smiling. "If I had a T-shirt," I told Nora, "mine would say Wild About Elephants. I think they're very smart." "They are," she said. "That's one of the reasons why it makes me so angry when they're mistreated. Elsie was in a circus where she wasn't taken care of properly. We rescued her."