Chapter Two of Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er continues from yesterday:

Back in the hubbub of the zoo, Luke kept a low profile. It felt good to be outlawing again. He saw plenty of zoo workers but there was no way of knowing whether they had keys without asking them. Then he heard a familiar jangle.

“I know what that means,” he thought, triumphant, “that man’s got keys on his belt!”

The man was alone.  At a grassy, low-fenced enclosure inhabited by small, furry animals Luke didn’t know the name of, he caught up with him.  The man seemed engrossed in what he was doing, or perhaps lost in his own thoughts.  Luke could see the keys dangling against his hip and crept up so close behind him he could almost reach them through the wire fence.  Just as he was about to touch them a loud voice, crackling from the man’s walkie talkie, startled his hand back.  The voice sounded impatient.

“Brinley! Can you hear me? I need you to open the Goods Entrance – the delivery’s just arrived.”

“I heard you! I’m on my way.”

The man, and the keys, hurried out of the enclosure.  Luke followed him at a discreet distance.  He went past a sign which said ‘STAFF ONLY’ and up to a big gate.  No one else was around.  The walkie talkie shouted at the man again.

“HURRY UP BRINLEY! It’s that bad tempered lorry driver!”

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” said Brinley.

In his rush he left the keys in the gate after unlocking it and hurried up the track.  He would probably only be gone for a moment or two.  But that was enough.

Luke ran as fast as he could to get back to the elephant.  It was easier to go unnoticed than it had been on the way out because there was some kind of commotion on the other side of the zebra enclosure.  He overheard something as he passed through which assured him it was nothing to concern him.  The elephant was waiting right where he’d left her.

“I got it! I got the key! Sorry it took so long.”

He unlocked the gate and led her out.

“That’s it, out you come,” he encouraged her, “I don’t know your name so if you don’t mind I think I’ll call you ……… Emma.”

Emma seemed as happy as he was about her outing and she trumpeted with joy.

“Shhh shhh,” Luke looked up into her big, dark eyes, “we’ve got to be sneaky, remember?”

He pointed to a gate behind Emma’s enclosure beyond which he could see a wide open space – a meadow bordered with woodlands.

“Let’s go this way,” he suggested, “don’t worry, no one’ll see. They’re too busy lookin’ for a lost little boy. Hope they find ‘im.”

In a few short minutes Luke and Emma were crossing the meadow side by side, heading for the woods. Luke chatted away non-stop while Emma swished her tail and listened contentedly.

“Truth is Emma,” he explained, “I’d love to take you home with me but I really don’t think me dad’d let me.  Honestly, you should ‘ave ‘eard the fuss ‘e made over a couple o’ rabbits.”

On the other side of the wood was another meadow, even more beautiful, with trees here and there and, to Luke’s delight, something else.

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Wow! Can it really be so simple? Click here to see what happens right away, or come back tomorrow if you think you can wait.

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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, exciting and sometimes action-packed vegan-friendly children’s stories since 2012.

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