The Talking Animals

Selena had always wanted to go to the zoo. When her parents had finally agreed to take her, she didn’t want to leave, even when her parents had gotten tired of seeing all of the amazing animals. She had finally convinced them to sit down at the small café and let her finish exploring. She hoped they could stay until closing time, especially since she didn’t know when they would have a chance to come back.

As Selena wandered in and out of different areas, she kept feeling herself pulled back to study the monkeys. She didn’t know why she was so fascinated by the creatures, but whenever she looked at them, she felt some type of instant connection.

“Excuse me,” a voice said very near to her ear. Selena jumped because she had thought she was all alone. She turned, but there was no one there.

“Excuse me,” the voice said again.

This time, Selena turned in a complete circle. There was no one there except her and the monkeys.

“Over here,” the voice echoed one last time. This time, Selena really looked and was shocked to find the voice was coming from one of the monkeys. At first, she couldn’t believe it, but when the monkey spoke again, she knew she had heard correctly. “I was just wondering if you could take my picture and put it in the newspaper. It’s been quite a while since anyone has.”

“Certainly,” Selena stammered. She was shaking as she grabbed her camera from around her neck. She found herself asking the monkey to say bananas right before she snapped the picture, and then she wondered if perhaps she was the one “going bananas.”

She hurried to get her mother and father and dragged them both back to the monkey cage. From that point on, none of the monkeys would talk.

Selena felt a little foolish and knew her parents didn’t believe her, but it didn’t really matter. She had talked with the animals today even if she was the only one who knew it.