Something's Happening At The Zoo

I do believe it's true.

Something's Happening At The Zoo

Last night I had the dream again.

This time it was a grisly, lumpy-faced orangutan with a squashed nose and orange hair. One of his huge hands had a good hold of my legs, while the other hand was yanking on my arms. There was another time, when it was four gray elephants pulling me apart. Always the same, my body pulled longer and longer -- a feeling of being stretched.

Bad dreams are bad dreams, but still just a dream, right? But what really started bothering me was when I noticed my pants' legs were too short. Then it was my shirt sleeves not reaching my wrists. I'm in my late twenties; my growth spurts are over. So I wore sweats all the time to hide the fact that my clothes didn't fit. Eventually, even that didn't work. I was growing taller and longer, and couldn't make it stop.

I had a calling one day, like a yearning to go somewhere. It was just a feeling at first that I couldn't quite shake. I had to go to this place and be there. It felt like a matter of life and death. So I left the house and started walking.

It wasn't long before I found myself at some large iron gates with an inscription at the top that read, 'The Zoo'. It was obvious that the place had been closed down for years; there were no animals, no people in sight, just a bunch of empty cages and overgrown walkways. The gate was slightly ajar, just enough for me to slip through. So I did. I felt that this was the place my calling had led me to; this, for some reason, felt like home.

As I meandered through the walkways looking at the empty cages, I saw some vagrants scattered about living in makeshift tents. When they saw me, they covered up their faces and slipped into the bushes or their shelters as if they were trying to hide. I did not approach them because they frightened me, so I continued my search throughout the zoo.

When I reached a large habitat with tall fencing, I decided to sit down and rest against the enclosure. I must have been exhausted because after a time, I fell asleep and had one of my dreams.

This time, I was hanging like a common criminal from a tree. Instead of strangling until dead, my neck began to stretch and stretch. My arms grew too, until they were much longer than my legs, and my hands and feet had no fingers and toes, but became hoof-like. I was transforming into an animal.

I awoke with a start. There were homeless people crowded all around me who looked like they were half human and half animal. From up the path, I saw a man hunching forward and using his knuckles the way I could only describe as ape-like. The others stepped back as he moved forward.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to the zoo." He stared at me up and down, then said, "My, but aren't you a tall one."

"What's happening to me? I asked.

"Well, from the looks of things, I'd say you were morphing into a giraffe."

"How can that be? This makes no sense."

"You were called here to the zoo just like we were. The outside world does not need us, but in here, at the zoo, we are all needed and necessary. Once you can walk on those stilts for legs, I will show you what comes next, what's happening here at the zoo. And believe me, you're going to love this."


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