~ Chapter Thirty Eight ~

"Good morning!"  Brian hollered from the entryway.

Becky almost knocked her cereal off the table.  Brian was there very early for a Saturday morning.  "Hi!"  She called back.

"Got plans today?"  Brian inquired, poking his head in the kitchen, the smirk on his face telling Becky that he had plans.  Becky smiled back around her mouthful of Captain Crunch.  Brian always had good plans.

"No."

"Cool.  We're goin' to the zoo."

Becky squealed in delight.  "Really?"  He hadn't forgotten after all.  She should have known he wouldn't. 

"Yep.  Go put your zoo shoes on."

"You'd better tell Daddy."  Becky warned, before running for the stairs and her closet as fast as she could.  She could hear Brian yelling at her parents bedroom door while she put on her favorite tennis shoes. 

"Kevin!  I'm taking Becky to the zoo!  Yeah!  No... I don't think so.  Okay...  Yes, I'll make her wear a jacket!  I promise!  Fine, I'll wear one too!  You two have fun... uh... that was NOT what I meant, Karen!"  He appeared in Becky's doorway.  "Your parents scare me.  I'm surprised you've remained an only child as long as you have."

Becky wrinkled her nose.  "What do you mean?"

"Never mind."  Brian shrugged as they started down the stairs.  "You have to wear a jacket or your dad will string me up by my eyelids, okay?"

"It's probably a wise idea."  Becky agreed, pulling her pink raincoat off its peg.  "It might rain."

"So..."  Brian added, as Becky crawled over into the passenger seat of his little car.  The passenger door didn't open most of the time.  It was usually easier to just crawl in the other side.  "I was talkin' to a certain friend of mine, and he decided going to the zoo was a pretty cool idea, so he's comin' too, okay?"

"Who?"  Becky wondered.  Brian had a lot of friends.  She hoped it was someone she liked. 

"A certain number 5... plus his girlfriend."  Brian nodded, attempting to start the car.

"Nick!"  Becky clapped her hands.  She knew the numbers of every player on the team.  "I like Nick!"

"Yeah, so do I."  Brian agreed, the car finally starting with a loud rattling noise.  "So, tell me.  What're the important spots to hit?"

Becky thought for a moment, trying to remember what her classmates had told her about the field trip she missed.  "The elephants, the lions, the ponies, and the butterflies.  Oh, and the snakes."

~*~

"You know who it looks like?"  Brian said finally.  "AJ."

Becky stared up at the mountain goat perched on the rock formation on the other side of the railing.  Maybe it did a little.  AJ had highlighted his hair platinum silver in honor of the playoffs, and that was almost the same color as the goat's fur. 

"It does not."  Nick protested.  He was wearing his standard khakis and sweatshirt, but had added a navy blue stocking cap pulled down over his ears, complaining that his head was cold.  Becky had decided it made him look like a fisherman - a nice looking fisherman. 

"Does too."  Brian argued mildly.  "Look at it - it's even rocking back and forth.  It's neurotic."

"And that would be AJ."  Stacy finished.  Becky liked Stacy's sweater.  It was long, with a turtleneck and looked snuggly.  Snuggly was good today - it wasn't quite raining, but everything was still wet.  It was a good thing Becky had worn her raincoat. 

~*~

"Okay, the snakes were bad enough."  Stacy complained as Nick forcibly dragged her through the door of the Nocturnal House.  "But I hate bats even more."

"Geez... they're behind nets and stuff."  Nick wrinkled his nose.  "And the snakes were behind glass.  What's so horrible about that?"

Becky didn't hear Stacy's reply as she followed Brian down the darkened ramp.  She couldn't see anything for a moment, then her eyes adjusted, and she could see the reflectors twinkling on her shoes.  There was one blue light at the end of the ramp illuminating an arrow that pointed out the hallway into where the animals were.

"Ow!"  Stacy yelped.

Nick cackled with delight.  "Oops!  Sorry."  He didn't sound sorry in the slightest.

"Wait a minute..."  Brian stopped right before he and Becky entered the main room.  "Where'd they go?"  He glanced back up the ramp, then shook his head.  "Yeesh."

Becky looked.  Nick and Stacy were kissing again.  Becky sighed.  If they weren't kissing, they were holding hands.  The only time they hadn't been was when Nick had lifted Becky up so she could see the zebras. 

"Excuse me, you guys."  Brian hissed loudly.  "Get a room?"

"Been there, done that, got the t-shirt." Nick retorted, letting go of Stacy's waist. 

Becky frowned.  She didn't understand that, but Brian kept telling her there was a lot she would finally get when she was older. That must have been one of them.  "Can we go look at the bats now?"

"No, let's not."  Stacy shook her head.

"Oh come on."  Nick slung his arm around her shoulder.  "I'll stop them from dive bombing your head."  He winked at Becky as Stacy smacked him on the chest.

Becky smiled back.  Nick was in a pretty fun mood today.  Becky couldn't wink though.  She had tried it before, and all she ended up doing was blinking.

~*~

"That one's pretty."  Becky pointed at the picture of the butterfly.  They were all pretty, and Becky had made that same comment about each and every one of the different little pictures.  It had stopped raining as they finished their pizza, and they had stopped to see the butterflies before Becky got her pony ride.

"That one looks like angels wings."  Becky continued. 

"I thought angels didn't have wings."  Brian pointed out.

"I meant in the traditional sense."  Becky corrected.  She knew that Brian knew that angels didn't have wings, but she had to correct him anyway.  If angels DID have wings, they would look like the butterfly.

"Do you believe in angels?"  Brian was talking to Stacy now. 

Stacy raised her eyebrows.  "If you're talking about an actual celestial being - no, I don't."

"What about you, Nick?" 

Nick stared distractedly at Brian, his mind still on the butterflies.  "Huh?"  He scrunched his face up.  "Didn't we already talk about this before?"

"I don't remember."  Brian shrugged.

"Well, I guess I do."  Nick frowned.  "I think I'd kind of like to believe there's something like that."

"Do you believe in angels?"  Stacy threw the question back at Brian.

Brian's face turned serious.  "I believe in something.  When I was five years old - I was in the hospital, the doctors thought I was going to die - and I know I saw something.  They were trying to restart my heart and it wasn't like it was a person or anything - it was more of a presence... call it whatever you want.  I think it's angels."

Becky knew exactly what Brian was talking about.  He had told her the story before, but Becky had seen the same thing.  She didn't know why, and it didn't bother her in the slightest, for her it was a perfectly normal experience.  She only felt it around certain people at certain times, and she was pretty sure it had something to do with what Brian was talking about.  Becky knew she could see angels.