Right away, Pat rushed to the cashier station.
"How did you not see her?" He was having a hard time not yelling at the cashier.
"Are you absolutely sure-" The cashier leaned further on his rattling recliner chair, his eyes glued on his phone and voice lacking concern. "-you checked everywhere?"
"I checked twice! Just show me the CCTV footage!" Pat's voice rose higher with each word.
The cashier clicked his tongue as he pushed his overgrown hair backwards. "Tough luck, our manager's a cheapskate… those cameras are just for show."
"Look man- I went for a piss." The cashier stated nonchalantly as he typed away in his phone. "I'm a cashier not a babysitter. I am here to make sure you don't steal and not to see if your kid gets stolen."
Pat's heart jumped to his throat at the thought. Prissy was not stolen; she merely wandered off, right? A sudden urge to punch the cashier surged into him. He fisted his hands to stop them from lashing out and hurried out the door. He could not waste time on people like him. Looking for his niece was his first priority.
Exiting out of the store, he felt even more lost than before. The city was too big and the possibilities endless. Where should he start? Should he report to the cops? Or wait at home? Should he run in the streets shouting her name out loud?
As more time passed and his thoughts tangled into an ugly mess, Pat found himself falling deeper and deeper into the pit of guilt he had dug. He should have known. He should have been more careful. He should not have left her alone. It was all his fault…
Feeling helpless, he looked up at the sky. The stars looked down at him, mocking him. Looking after his niece was the only duty he thought he could not fail at but it turned out he was a total failure after all.
Aimlessly he roamed around, the tiniest hope sparking in his heart that Prissy would show up from around the corner and giggle at him, teasing him for being a 'scaredy cat'.
That was when he saw it. His scarf. His old green scarf that he had wrapped around her neck before was lying flat on the ground- on the road where cars moved around, where accidents happened.
His soul froze at the sight. He bent down to pick it up. It surely was his. He could recognize those squiggly scale patterns anywhere. But…what did it lying on the concrete road mean?
He slumped on the ground granting mercy to his wobbling legs. He could not comprehend what could have happened to Prissy. He clutched the scarf close to his heart and stared at the ground.
His eyes fell on the shadow casted in front of him due to the mellow light from the streetlight. He looked up at the sign that casted it.
"ZOONIOR PARK" -It said
Despite its comical name, the zoo was considered one of the national treasures of the country contributing to at least thirty percent in tourism and a significant amount in the GDP of the economy. The facility attracted tourists and researchers alike from all corners of the world which would often cause the streets around it to be overcrowded. However, the zoo was quite strict with their policies and did not allow any guest in after dusk.
It was not the sign or the sight of the zoo that interested Pat. He had been there before. As a matter of fact, almost any inhabitant of the city had been to the zoo at least ten times in their lifetime.
What truly interested him was the hole in the wall, a few feet away from the massive exit gate. He had heard about one of the zoo rhinos escaping a week back and damaging a great portion of one of the boundary walls- every channel had covered the news and even showed the damage making a huge deal of it. It was the same hole and they seemed to not have repaired it yet.
Pat squinted his eyes at the hole. A seven year old could slide pass it with ease. Prissy loved animals and he found the scarf he gave her across the road from the zoo…
@(・o・)@@(・o・)@@(・o・)@
Addy swore if she found Kevin dozing off and snoring in a hole, she would commit murder. Despite being very close to the city, the zoo was as massive as it could get. Running around looking for him was not setting well with her already tired limbs and he was not making it easy for her by not picking up his phone.
It was a wonder that someone as irresponsible as him had landed the job of caring animals and her boss called her incapable!
She slowed down her thundering steps as she reached the capuchin enclosure, aware of how sensitive those monkeys were. Even the sound of a water droplet hitting the ground could awaken them up which would make them go berserk and start wreaking havoc inside their enclosure which would ultimately disturb the other zoo animals.
Just as she was about to release a sigh of relief after tip-toeing pass the monkeys, she bumped into something.
Shocked at the impact, she looked down. A pair of tiny eyes stared back at her.
Caught off-guard, Addy asked cautiously. "Umm…are you okay?"
"I am." The little kid answered rather confidently as she brushed the nonexistent dust away from her dress. "Are you okay?" She asked in return.
Addy nodded reluctantly. "I am."
"Do you know where the exit is, miss-" The girl raised herself on her toe to peek at the name tag in Addy's uniform."-Twinkle?"
"Addy. Call me Addy." The words automatically left her lips, used to asking people to do so.
"But here it says Twinkle." She pointed at Addy's name tag.
"Everyone calls me Addy." Addy assured with a nervous smile.
"But I like Twinkle more," the youngling pouted, "Addy reminds me of Andy- he's one nasty kid. He picks his nose and eats his booger!"
"Don't worry!" Addy couldn't help but laugh. "I don't pick my nose. Or eat boogers."
"But I want to call you Twinkle- like the nursery rhymes!"
Addy stood silently in front of the kid, not knowing what to say. Even though she despised her first name, she knew standing there arguing with the kid would do her no good and it was not like they would ever meet again.
"Please! Please!" The kid continued pleading.
Addy nodded in approval, partly because she couldn't afford wasting any more time debating on her name with a child and partly because she couldn't bring herself to say 'no' to her adorable face.
The girl grinned at her response which made Addy notice the gap in between her front teeth. She grinned back, her hands twitching to squeeze the little kid's cute cheeks.
"What is that in your hand?"
Addy glanced down at her hand. She had forgotten she was carrying it around. "It's a vacuum."
"Are you cleaning the zoo?"
She paused for a moment. "Yeah… I keep the animal habitats clean."
The girl's eyes fired up. "Can I help? I always wanted to take closer look at those Siberian tigers!"
"No." Addy leaned down to get a closer look of the kid. Her chaotic curls were pushed back with a hair band and tiny nose had gone red probably due to the cold. Her eyes were dark but lively. "How did you get in here?"
Averting her eyes, the girl hesitated for a second before replying with a cheeky smile. "Through the hole!"
"What hol-" Midway through the sentence, realization dawned on Addy. The girl was talking about the hole created by the rhino that had escaped last week.
"The one near the exit door?"
The girl nodded.
Questions circled inside Addy's head. "Where are your parents? Actually why are even out so late?"
The girl pressed her lips together, her eyes fixated on Addy.
"Hey, tell me. I want to help you."
The girl visibly gulped, her eyes still on her. That's when Addy realized that the girl was not looking at her but something behind her.
"Is there something behind me?" She asked in confusion.
Her question answered itself when she felt it. Someone was breathing on her neck.