The Romantics(32)

The tram turned a corner, and the visions of elephants were replaced by children holding ice-cream bars shaped like zoo animals.

“Anyway,” Sammy said, folding her hands in her lap. “Yesterday morning I was making a waffle at the dining hall, and some dick had unscrewed the top on the chocolate chips, and they spilled everywhere. Cara helped me clean everything up, and we had breakfast together. She’s nice, I guess, though I kind of wanted to strangle her when she was not so nice to Piper.”

“I know,” Gael said. “It was surprising.” And then: “I actually met her in an odd way, too. She hit me out of nowhere on her bike, and then she offered me half her nachos. And then she told me she was going to the zoo with a friend, and here we are. Kind of random, to be honest.”

(*twiddles thumbs innocently*)

Sammy nodded. “Yeah, the zoo was my idea. I spend most Sundays with my grandparents, and I wanted a reason to skip at least some of the Price Is Right reruns.”

“Your grandparents live in Chapel Hill?”

She shook her head. “Just down the road, actually. I come to the enchanting city of Asheboro quite frequently. You have to get creative about finding things to do.”

“Damn,” Gael said, genuinely surprised. “I call my grandma and grandpa once every two weeks if I’m good.”

Actually, since the separation, Gael had barely called his grandparents at all. Every phone conversation had gone from chatting about grades and band to awkwardly asking him, over and over, if he was okay, and how he was handling his parents’ split.

Sammy shrugged. “We’ve always been close, I guess.”

Gael stared at her. Even if Sammy’s parents split up, she’d probably be just as good a granddaughter. It was just the kind of person she was.

“What?” she asked.

He shifted in his seat. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just nice, is all.”

“That’s me to a tee,” she laughed. “Queen of nice!” She pulled her hair back into a tiny bun. “Anyway, this Cara, she’s not the girl you met on your birthday, is she?”

Gael bit at his lip, suddenly embarrassed. “Yeah.”

Sammy laughed, but it sounded a tad forced. “I’m surprised you were willing to be on my team.”

Gael looked at her, with her professor-like glasses and her shortish hair and her mouth that could grow twice as large when she was smiling about baby elephants, and suddenly, he didn’t mind at all how the day had turned out.

“Nah,” he said genuinely. “I’m glad we’re on the same team. Even if Samgael is a gambling drunken bastard.”





scenes from a north carolina zoo


Clip #1: Length: 0:56


“Please be quiet,” Sammy says to an unassuming couple who walks hand in hand by the marsh exhibit, where drag-onflies, et al., fly from one lily pad to another. She adjusts her glasses with absolute bravado. “I’m doing a study on the secret language of lily pads. Make a single sound and you’ll completely disturb them. There’s like a whole entire symphony going on in the water.”

The couple miraculously believes her, and the dude even tells his girlfriend to keep it down when she asks Sammy whether she’s a researcher from Duke. Gael laughs in the background as Sammy says, matter-of-factly, “They say that Mozart got many of his ideas from the vibrations of lily pads.”





Clip #2: Length: 0:33


“I am the egg man! They are the egg men! I AM THE WALRUS! COO-COO-CA-CHOO!” Gael sings while surrounded by no fewer than five moms and dads and grandpas, who are completely delighted by his song. The camera shakes as Sammy sings along while holding the iPhone. The walrus in the background seems completely nonplussed.





Clip #3: Length: 0:13


Sammy approaches a zoo employee and asks with absolute seriousness, “Excuse me, ma’am, but you can you please point me to the seven-hump wump exhibit?”





Clip #4: Length: 0:19


Gael does his best gorilla impression in front of the ape’s sprawling habitat, posturing around on all fours like he was born to walk that way.

“I look ridiculous, don’t I?” Gael asks the camera.

“No,” Sammy says. “Seriously. You just look awesome.”





Clip #5: Length: 0:28


The camera follows Sammy as she walks past grizzly bears and red wolves.

“I believe you’re supposed to be waddling like a duck right about now,” Gael says in the background.

“I think you should take this one,” she says. “I’m wearing a skirt, after all.”

“Oh, come on,” Gael says, keeping the camera on her.

Sammy places her hands under her chin and bats her eyelashes dramatically. “All right, Mr. Brennan, I’m ready for my close-up,”

Gael zooms in, and her face fills the frame.

“Hey,” she says. “Too close!”

Her hand obscures the lens. The video cuts to black.





family dinner for three


After they’d watched all the videos together, Gael and Piper said good-bye to Sammy and Cara and headed back to their dad’s apartment for one last dinner before going back to their real home for the week.