Trouble at the Zoo

“I wonder where the tigers are,” said Stephanie, my fiancée, as we strolled through the zoo.

It was a clear and sunny day; a perfect day for a relaxing trip at the local zoo. I was glad that we could stop talking about our ever-looming wedding. It’s not that I don’t want to get married. It’s more an issue on how it was going to prey on my bank account. As an accountant, I should know what we are able to handle.

“They must be around here somewhere,” I replied as we passed the tropical birds.

“Oh look at these pretty things,” she said as we stopped to look at them. “Imagine if we can have a few tropical birds at the reception; one or two per table.”

Just when I thought that the wedding was not going to be mentioned.

“I can picture your Aunt Doris’s face as a parrot tries to steal a piece of her cake,” I said jokingly, “not to mention my face when I find out how much they cost.”

“Martin, I told you my dad will pay for everything,” but her dad doesn’t know that yet.

“Can we please not talk about the wedding now?” I asked and then I looked at my watch, “The zoo is going to close soon anyway.”

“Oh my goodness, the time has flown by quickly,” she said and we carried on walking, “and we haven’t even seen the tigers yet.”

WeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The piercing sound almost gave me a heart attack. Suddenly we heard all the gates slammed shut around us. Everybody stood still. Then the zoo speakers crackled to life and a nervous lady’s voice came through them.

“This is an urgent warning. There is a tiger loose in the zoo. Do not panic. I repeat: do not panic! We ask that everyone remain calm and not engage with the tiger. Our rangers are on top of everything. Remember. Do not panic! Thank you.”

For a moment there was absolute silence. Not even the tropical birds were making a sound. The silence was broken by a distant scream. From then on it was chaos.

People were crying and running in a panic to get to a safe house. Was there even a safe house? There should be. The zoo should’ve made provisions for this kind of thing.

“Martin, what are we going to do?!” screamed Stephanie. Everything around me was in a strange adrenalin-fuelled blur.

“I don’t know!” I shouted over the panic. One thing I knew we should not do was to stand still. What if the tiger was making its way towards us? “Let’s hide somewhere!”

I looked around to see if there was some place we could hide in. Everyone was doing their own thing. Stephanie tugged at my sleeve.

“What about in there?” she asked and pointed to a tiny building that was the public toilets. I nodded and we went for it.

Inside there was only one of the two cubicles left open. We squished inside. The cubicle was smaller than I thought. Soft whimpers could be heard from the other cubicle.

“Well, this is a great end of our day,” I breathe.

“So now we wait,” she said and looked around in the cubicle. “I hope we get out of this alive. I don’t want to die in a toilet. I would like to get back to planning our wedding.”

“We can worry about the wedding later,” I said. The money-hungry wedding was the last thing on my mind at that moment.

“Why don’t you ever want to talk about the wedding?” she asked raising her voice, like she always does when we get to this topic.

“Well, I don’t see what the rush is,” I said sternly, “and besides, we’re in a toilet for crying out loud!”

Stephanie wanted to respond to that, but she stopped when we heard a low grumble coming from outside the cubicle. We looked down to see a shadow moving slowly. I couldn’t breathe. My heart stopped when I heard the low grumble again. Oh God no!

I could hear the people in the other cubicle whispering something that sounded like prayers. I think they were French.

“M-Martin, I need to tell you something,” she whispered to me.

“Shh! Keep quiet,” I hoped that if we were dead quiet the tiger would think there was nothing, and leave.

“I’m pregnant,” she said calmly, “four weeks.”

I just stared at her, surprised.

“What?!” I said too loudly. The tiger roared and started pushing and scratching at our cubicle. Someone in the next cubicle screamed and this only made the tiger roar again. All I was thinking about was how Stephanie’s father was going to skewer me if he found out. She could’ve told me sooner.

Stephanie started to cry. I didn’t know what to do. I’m just an accountant. I never had to worry about a big ferocious man-eating cat in my life.

Shouts were heard from outside. Then a gun shot went off. The tiger stopped scratching our cubicle and made strange moaning sounds. After a minute or three there was nothing. I wondered if the tiger was dead.

Someone knocked on our door.

“You can open the door now,” a voice told us, “the situation is safe.”

We did so and saw that the tiger was hit by a tranquilizer dart. The zoo ranger escorted us and the French people out of the public toilets.

I hugged Stephanie as hard as I could when we reached a safe distance.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner,” she cried into my shirt, “I was scared.”

“It’s okay,” I soothed her, “everything’s okay now.” We watched as other rangers with tranquilizer guns went in to assist.

“I just want to ask something,” I started. She looked at me curiously. “Can I have one of those guns with me when we tell your parents?”