A Day at the Zoo
After dinner that night, Tricia left to go back to the church to work on organizing charitable distributions to Guatemala. He wasn’t happy that she was gone and had left him alone with the girls, but he’d started to understand her interests in working with the church and helping others. She’d told him that she was happy to hear that he was in the church that morning and that she was bummed that she’d missed him. She’d taken time off from the choir to attend an important session of a Bible study on the book of Ephesians about marriage.
“She’s doing all of the right things.”
He sat in the reclining chair in the family room and watched his daughters, who were circling a coffee table in front of him in a game of tag. They were being a little too noisy, so he figured he’d try to get them to calm down.
“Girls, wanna watch a movie? How about Shrek?”
“Yeah!” Kaylee responded.
“No,” Haley said in her tiny voice, “I don’t want to watch a movie. I play with my dolls.”
“How about playing with your dolls here in the family room, while Kaylee and I watch the movie?”
“Okay Daddy.” Haley went into her bedroom and collected her dolls and carried them into the family room, where she plopped them on the floor. She returned to her room and soon appeared in her doorway with her dollhouse. It was almost as big as she was and she was having a difficult time dragging it into the hallway.
He got up from his chair and walked over towards her. “Haley, let me help you with that.” The doll house was a little heavy as he gripped it tightly and carried it from the hallway to the family room. It was another splurge from his wife, but spilt milk.
“Try not to think about those things. Try not to think about money.”
He knelt down to the ground and placed each of her dolls into a separate room of the dollhouse. “How about that, Haley?”
“Thank you Daddy,” she said as she sat down in front of the doll house.
He returned to his favorite chair and Kaylee crawled into his lap. Feeling comfortable and loved, he cuddled with his daughter and simultaneously flipped the channels to find the Shrek movie on his remote. Seconds later, Shrek and his sidekick donkey appeared on the flat screen television.
“Yay,” Kaylee said.
“Girls, do you want to go to the zoo tomorrow? I’ll take you out of daycare, if you want, to go to the zoo. We can look at zebras and elephants and snakes and monkeys.”
“Yeah, Daddy,” Haley said as she jumped onto his lap next to her sister.
“I wanna go too,” Kaylee said, “but I don’t like snakes.”
“Well we can skip the snake exhibit. They have penguins and birds and kangaroos there too. Okay, it’s final then. Tomorrow we’ll go to the zoo. Maybe Mom will play hooky from school and join us.”
***
The girls fell asleep in his lap, so he carried them into their bedroom and tucked them into their beds. He always enjoyed watching them sleeping, so peaceful and innocent. Quiet time. He returned to the family room to wait for his wife.
“Why have I been so critical of her?” He thought. “She really isn’t that fat. Probably normal by societal standards. Just a little out of shape.”
Braedon reminisced about his life and his upbringing, questioning his feelings on weight gain and obesity. His mom came to mind. When she had married his dad, she was probably a size two, appearing thin and radiant in their wedding photo. After she gave birth to Braedon, she was a bit larger, but still at a generally accepted weight for her height. Then she plumped up like a balloon. By the time Braedon was in high school, she’d topped 200 pounds. When he graduated, she’d reached 250.
It had embarrassed him when she picked him up from school and his friends made fun of him. They made so many ‘your mama’ jokes that he could barely face them.
She made him angry and resentful, so he’d asked her to avoid high school events, especially his graduation. She showed up anyway. He didn’t want her to show up for his college graduation either, but she did anyway. She never listened.
“Why did she love food so much?” Baking and cooking were her hobbies, and eating was her passion. She ate at least six meals daily, supplemented by cookies, pies, and cakes. She never stopped eating and crunching and munching and grazing all day long. “How about a pizza for lunch?” She’d ask. “How about a pizza for dinner?” She’d order two pizzas, one for herself and the other for the family. Pizza made him sick to his stomach.
“But she also loved me.” It wasn’t until his mid-twenties that he decided that he’d accept her as she was and love her unconditionally. But he’d also decided that he didn’t want to accept anyone else under the same circumstances, particularly the woman he married.
But maybe Tricia wasn’t on the same obesity track. Maybe she was at a comfortable weight and would stay there for the rest of her life. Maybe he’d been overly critical of her and overly worried about her weight gain possibilities.
The garage door opened. “Braedon, I’m home,” she called out as she entered the house.
“Hi Trish. How was the church?”
“Good, helped over a hundred kids in Guatemala tonight. They’re happy for that.”
“That’s great Trish. I think I’ll start joining you. You’ve been setting such a good example for the kids and I’d like to be a good example too.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah, I think you’re doing the right thing and I need to make a few changes in my life. Church is a good change. Next Sunday, I’ll join you. Maybe help you in Sunday school too. What do you think?”
“Wow Braedon.”
He looked at her as he waited for an additional sign of approval, but she was just staring at him. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, cuffed up under her knees, and an airy button-down cotton shirt. She looked casual, and somewhat fashionable. He noticed that she had eye makeup on, along with a bit of red lipstick and blush. Maybe she was starting to care a little more about her appearance. He didn’t know for sure.
“Are you okay with that, Trish?”
“Well, maybe in a month or so as far as Sunday school goes. They’ve set the schedule and the lessons, so I won’t need any help for a while.”
“Okay, well, that’s cool,” he said.
He studied her expression, which seemed a little cold. Maybe she was a little bitter about the way he’d treated her over the past few years. He’d need time to make up for that, but he’d do what he could. After all, she was his wife and the mother of his children and it was time he did things right.
“Well, I’m going to hit the hay. I’m worn out,” she said as she started to turn around.
“Hey, Tricia.”
“Yeah?”
“You look nice tonight. How about joining me at the zoo tomorrow with the girls? Play hooky from school. I told them I’d take them out of the daycare to take them there. We’ll have a nice family day.”
“No, I can’t do that. The comprehensive exams start tomorrow in the school. Sorry.”
“No problem. I understand.”
“Goodnight Braedon.”
“Goodnight.”
***
Braedon was prepared for a long day at the zoo. He put suntan lotion on the girls before leaving and dressed them in sundresses with comfortable sandals and floppy hats. He packed diapers and backup clothing too, in case either had accidents or something unexpected happened. With toddlers, backup clothing was a necessity. He’d also packed a small cooler with bottled waters, snacks, and sandwiches for the girls and planned to carry the cooler into the zoo in the bottom of the double stroller.
He and his daughters arrived at the zoo at 8:30 a.m. on that relatively cool, sunny Monday morning. Braedon wheeled the girls in the stroller through the parking lot and up to the ticketing agents where he paid for an annual family pass. The pass was on sale that week, and he considered the price quite a bargain for unlimited attendance over the coming year.
“Where do you want to go first, girls? If we go left, we’ll see the monkeys. If we go right, we’ll see the giraffes.”
“Giraffes,” Haley said.
“No monkeys,” Kaylee said.
“We’ll flip a coin. If it lands on heads, we’ll see the giraffes first and on tails, the monkeys. He flipped the coin and said, “Monkeys it is. Don’t worry Haley, we’ll see everything here today. We’ll circle around and hit the giraffes before leaving the park.”
“Okay Daddy. Can we get cotton candy?”
“After lunch. I brought lunches for you. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, raisins, and chips.”
“Can we eat now so we can get cotton candy?” Haley asked.
“No, in just a little while. After we see the kangaroos, we’ll have lunch in the park area.”
“Okay Daddy.”
“I love you two. You’re my little strawberry delights.”
“I love you too Daddy,” Haley said.
“Me too!”
He wheeled up to the monkeys and the girls admired them in their jungle-like habitats, which were filled with ropes, hammocks, and trees atop a stream and surrounded by caves, rock, and grass. They made a variety of noises that varied in pitch and volume as they scampered around the grounds and swung between the trees. A mother monkey sat on top of the hammock, feeding her young.
“I like the monkeys,” Kaylee said as she climbed out of the stroller. Haley climbed out of her chair and stood next to her. They both stepped onto the ledge, which bordered the habitat, and studied the monkeys. Braedon stood next to them.
“I like the monkeys too,” Braedon answered. “They’re the animals that are most like humans. They have feelings and they’re smart, and wouldn’t you like to swing from tree to tree without a care in the world?”
“Yeah,” Kaylee answered, “can I?” She looked up at her dad with her crystal blue eyes, wide open and curious.
“No, not here, but maybe we’ll hang a swing from one of our tree branches at home sometime.”
They watched the monkeys for a little longer before hopping back into the stroller and heading to the tropical birds’ nest area. Both of the twins loved birds and the birds at the zoo were all sorts of species in all sizes and colors.
“Are you ready to see some birdies?” He asked as he stopped the stroller in front of the birds’ nest area.
“Yeah. I love birdies,” Kaylee said.
“Me too.”
The girls hopped out of the stroller, which he parked in the stroller area, and all three walked inside of the birds’ nest area.
Braedon loved being outside with his kids. Neighborhood walks, parks, theme parks, the beach, and the zoo were ideal ways for a dad to bond with his daughters. It was so much better than being cooped up inside of the house on a sunny day. He decided that they’d be using the annual family pass to the zoo often.