Chapter 23
Kaden walked up to the bowling place with Joe almost bouncing with excitement at his side.
“Can I pay?” Joe asked.
“If you want. Two players and shoes.”
“We need shoes?”
“To let us slide and to protect the lanes.”
“Oh. Why’s it so loud in here?”
“You’ll see.”
Joe paid and they exchanged their footwear.
“Oh laces,” Joe groaned.
“I’ll do them for you. But you ought to learn. First you make a basic knot by crossing the laces and pulling one through. Then, make two loops. Bunny ears. Cross the ears, tuck one through the hole underneath, and pull tight. See?”
“Can’t you tie your laces either?” asked a small boy who’d snuck up next to them.
“Laurie, leave the gentlemen alone,” a woman said.
“It’s fine,” Joe said. “I know how to do it now. Watch.”
Kaden smiled as Joe repeated what he’d done, saying the instructions out loud as he tied the lace on his other shoe.
The little boy sat next to Joe and copied him.
“I did it!”
“You did!” Joe whooped. “So did I! We are amazing humans.”
“Thank you,” the boy’s mother said.
“That was my first interaction with a child,” Joe whispered to Kaden. “He was cute.”
“He was.”
Kaden led Joe to their lane, number nine, and entered their names into the screen. Joe put the camera where no one could grab it. Next to them a ball thundered down the lane and there was an explosion of pins.
“Ah, that’s the noise,” Joe said. “So we just throw a ball?”
“Don’t throw. Bowl. Watch.” Kaden lifted a brown ball from the rack, judged the weight was okay, and sent it rolling down the polished wood. It knocked all the pins down and Kaden held up his fist in triumph. He didn’t usually manage a strike on the first bowl.
“Is that what you have to do?” Joe asked. “Not knock a specific one down?”
“Not at the start. Pick a ball that feels the right weight and comfortable to hold.”
“I can’t pick my favourite colour?”
Kaden laughed. “What is your favourite colour?”
“Blue, of course.” He smiled at Kaden, then grabbed a blue ball and wrapped his arms around it. “It feels okay.”
“Sixteen pounds? Too heavy and you’ll struggle to control it. But too light, and it won’t have the power to knock down the pins. Try purple.”
Joe swapped to a purple ball.
“Thumb in the large hole, middle and fourth fingers in the other two. Make sure your fingers slide in comfortably up to the second knuckle.”
“Okay.” Joe stepped forwards, pulled his arm back, but as he swung the ball, it slipped out of his grasp, fell into the gutter and slowly rolled on towards oblivion. “Oh.”
Kaden bit his lip. “Try again.”
Joe picked up another purple one, took a deep breath, stepped forward, swung his arm and released the ball directly behind him. There was a thud as it hit the seat, followed by laughter and not just from Kaden.
Joe winced as he went to get it. “Did I just invent reverse bowling?”
“Not the first one to do that. Try this ball.”
Joe took the orange ball from him. This time, the ball didn’t leave his hand and Joe went after it down the lane until it broke free and continued its journey. Joe slithered back to Kaden. They were both laughing.
“How can I be so useless?”
“Look!”
Joe turned round and they watched the ball slowly make its way to the pins and impossibly, knock all but one down.
“Did you see that?” Joe asked, high-fiving a bit too aggressively so they both nearly fell over.
“Well done! Only try to let go earlier.”
Joe got better and better and Kaden was pretty sure that if they had another game, Joe would win. But Joe said he’d had enough. He picked up the camera and they handed in their shoes.
“Can we go somewhere else?” Joe asked as they left the bowling place.
“I thought you wanted to have fun back at the flat?”
“I do but I want to fill the rest of this day with lots of things. And food.”
Kaden chuckled. “I have an idea. And we can eat there.”
Kaden hadn’t been to London Zoo since he was a small child.
He didn’t like animals being held in captivity, particularly when they were kept in environments that weren’t much more than adequate.
Animals deserved better. But zoos protected endangered species and educated the public, especially younger visitors. And aliens.
They took the Tube, then walked through Regent’s Park.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Joe asked.
“The zoo.”
Joe exhaled. “They’ll have animals I’ve only seen pictures of.” His voice was full of wonder.
“Did you have zoos?”
“We’re a single species planet, but I think…”
“You think what?”
“I don’t think it was always that way. More likely that over time, other species either died out or were exterminated because there was no requirement for them.”
“That’s sad.”
“Maybe, but it suited the world I lived in.”
Kaden paid for them to go in.
Just inside the entrance, Joe slammed to a halt. “A dead animal. Are they all dead?”
Kaden tugged him back to his side. “Shush! It’s a larger-than-life statue of a famous gorilla.”
“Oh. That’s a relief. Take my picture with it. Use the camera.”
Joe went to pose with the gorilla. Kaden briefly wondered why Joe was looking into the distance instead of at him but took the shot and Joe came back, retrieved the camera and checked the picture.
“You okay?” Kaden asked.
“Fine. I’m excited.”
When they reached the giraffes, Joe stopped dead again, his eyes wide.
“What the… Wow.”
“Giraffes.”
“Oh. Oh! My eyes are leaking!” Joe whispered.
Kaden guessed if you’d seen a giraffe before, you’d just take it for granted but Joe seemed about to emotionally unravel.
“They’re the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
Who designed an animal like that? They’re so tall.
Oh, look! They have to spread their legs to drink.
I saw pictures in the library, but look how they walk!
Do they lie down to sleep?” He took a breath, blinked and continued.
“Yes. They do but they frequently sleep standing up. Lying down makes them vulnerable to predators so they sleep in short, five-minute bursts while standing. Wow.” He turned to Kaden. “What next?”
Joe was vibrating like a man about to meet celebrities. A thought that made Kaden smile because Joe wouldn’t give a shit about someone famous.
“Now for some unusual birds.” Kaden backtracked and took him to the penguin enclosure. “Blake sponsors one of them.”
A group of them shot through the water like tiny torpedoes, zooming from one side of the pool to the other.
Joe grabbed his arm. “They’re flying underwater.”
Kaden laughed. “Swimming, but yes, it looks like that.”
One penguin launched itself out of the water and landed on the concrete shore.
“I like them. They’re fun.”
Joe admired everything they saw until they reached the gorillas.
“Like the statue at the entrance,” Kaden told him.
“It looks like a hairy man.”
“They’re dangerous.” Kaden looked at the information board. “Western lowland gorillas. They’re part of a breeding programme. They face severe threats in the wild and their numbers have declined by over sixty percent in the last twenty-five years due to poaching and disease.”
“So keeping them here is to protect the species.”
“Yes.”
“They look too humanoid. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Are humans their relations?”
“We’re not descended from them but we share a common ancestor. They’re our closest relations in the animal world. We share 98% of our DNA.”
“Wow.”
As they approached the big cat enclosure, a deep resonant roar filled the air.
Joe turned to Kaden. “Predator?”
“Apex predator.”
“They’d eat us if they could?”
“Probably.”
They stared through the glass at the lions. Only one seemed to be awake.
“The females do the hunting,” Kaden said. “The males do the defending.”
“Interesting.”
“They spend sixteen to twenty hours a day resting or sleeping.”
Joe laughed. “Why?”
“I think it’s to conserve energy for when they hunt. Plus, it’s hot in the African savanna.”
“If the males don’t hunt, why do they need to sleep?”
“They do hunt just not as much as the females. The males use ambush tactics in thick bush, while the females favour team-based, open-area chases. Plus, lions have a high protein diet and need to rest to digest it. Talking of diet. Fancy something to eat?”
Joe nodded.
Kaden paid for overpriced sandwiches and apple juice and as they sat to eat, he noticed Joe seemed preoccupied.
“Like it so far?” Kaden nudged his knee to Joe’s.
“Yes. It’s amazing to get the chance to see these animals, though I feel a little sad for them. But they’re making the best of their environment.”
“Like you?”
Joe smiled. “Just like me.” He leaned forward. “Don’t turn around. Don’t act surprised or shocked when I tell you something.”
Kaden’s heart did a little hop and skip in his chest. He put his sandwich down. “What?”
“We were followed from when we met Alistair and we’re still being followed by the same man and woman.
That was why I got you to take my picture by the statue.
I did know it was a statue but I needed you distracted while I checked I was right.
I wish I’d thought to look for people following when we left after the interview.
I assume they’re Alistair’s people, but they might not be. ”
“Why would they follow us?”
“Possibly to make sure we’re not doing anything they don’t like. Maybe they want to know where we’re living.”
“If they pinged either phone, they’d probably get close enough to find out.”
“It could also be for our protection.”
Kaden grabbed the burner. “I’m going to call Alistair.”
“Take a picture of them. They’re sitting at the table near the entrance. Come to this side of the table, pretend you’re taking a selfie.”
A moment later, Kaden sent the image to Alistair with the message yours or should we be worried? If they’re yours, call them off.
The reply came before they’d finished eating.
Ours. Just making sure. They’ll leave now.
Kaden showed the message to Joe.
“If they don’t go, we’ll lose them before we return to the flat,” Joe whispered.