24. Lucas
Lucas
Stepping into the tank, I felt like I won a grand prize. Platypuses were super rare, and we were about to meet two babies. Cam was right behind me, and Kate instructed both of us to take two steps forward slowly.
“They’ll likely be shy at first. We are desensitizing them to new people. When they grow old enough, they’ll move on to other zoos and help with the breeding population,” Kate explained. “Just keep your hands in the water in front of you or by your sides until they’re ready to swim over.”
I watched as one of them peeked out at us from the vegetation and dashed over to Kate through the water. She put her hands out in front of her and it snuggled and wriggled in them.
"This is Phineas. He's the more adventurous one."
"He's so cute," I said, trying not to scare him. It didn't take long for Phineas to get curious about me and Cam, who was a little behind me. It was clear he was allowing me to enjoy this experience, but I wanted to enjoy it with him.
"Get up here," I said. "Phineas has enough energy for both of us."
As if the little guy could understand me, he swam a few loops around my hands until he snuggled himself into my palms, looking up at me.
"I think...I'm going...to die," I said.
"I think your followers will die if you post these photos," Lachlan added. Phineas swam away, back to the fake riverbank at the edge of the tank.
"He's probably looking for Ferb," Kate said. And sure enough, two little heads poked out a few seconds later.
"Wow, you really know them," Luke said.
Kate nodded. "When you spend as much time as we do around them, you figure them out. They'll start chirping here in a minute, begging for lunch." Phineas and Ferb swam over to Kate, rubbing against her body, and then they approached me and Cam.
"That's Phineas out in front," Lachlan noted. Phineas came right back to me, but Ferb kept his distance, making his way closer to Cam. Cam was holding his hands completely still.
"Relax, Cam. You can take a breath," I said.
“I know, but I don’t want to scare him.” Ferb drifted toward Cam and swiftly slipped into his hands, rubbing his face and neck all around.
"Ooh, Ferb likes you, Cam," Lachlan said. Cam giggled, and it was like a fairy sprinkling pixie dust on my brain. It helped that I was playing with a baby platypus with the man I loved.
Holy shit. I loved him.
I did. This was his idea, and it was so Cam to think of something like this. I knew I was moving too fast. For both of us. I’d have to wait until I thought he was ready for me to say it.
Unless he said it first.
We each had one of the little rascals in our hands when Lachlan said, "Time for a photo of you two. Look over here and smile."
He put a little whistle to his mouth and called out, "Sit!" and then peeped the whistle a little.
“Oh, that was perfection,” Lachlan said, tossing something interesting in the water that the brothers immediately dove for.
Kate explained, “We’re training them to sit still. Sometimes we use it for exams, sometimes for photos. They did what we asked, so Lach threw them some worms as a reward.”
“Worms?” Cam asked.
“Right-o. That gross you out? No worries, mate. They ate them already,” Lachlan said.
He was right. The babies were fast. They continued to swim around us, playing with each other and rubbing against Kate.
They’d investigate Cam and me now and then, and it was nice to see Cam so relaxed around relative strangers.
It helped that Lachlan was gay, but I wouldn’t mind more moments with Cam like this.
I knew it had to end soon, but when Kate told us to say our goodbyes, I was still disappointed. I knew they had more work to do.
“Goodbye, Phineas. Goodbye, Ferb,” I said aloud, giving them each a final caress.
“Thank you both so much,” Cam said.
“Yes, thank you. This was a dream come true. If either of you wanted to see any of the Olympic events, let me know and I’ll see what I can do,” I offered.
“Really?” Kate asked.
“I’ll take you up on that!” Lachlan said. “But what sport has the hottest guys?”
“I hope you’re teasing,” I joked, flexing as I stepped out of the tank.
There was a shower in the bathroom and a stack of fresh towels, so we could rinse off before changing.
“You guys shower often at work?” Cam asked, heading in first. I wondered about that as well.
“We both dive in the dugong tank. It’s never that dirty, but it’s best to not take any chances,” Kate answered.
“We’ll have to check them out before we go. Any other recommendations? We’ve seen most of Africa and the Reptile House.”
“Oh, don’t miss the bird show and the aviary. It’s the country’s largest,” Lachlan answered.
“Our Asia area isn’t extensive, but the binturongs, sun bears, tigers, and red pandas are there. They’re all worth checking out, too,” Kate suggested.
I heard the water shut off, and it was my turn to clean up.
I could hear Cam talking with them through the door.
It was weird to shower alone, having had my teammates or Cam with me the last few days, but I still couldn’t stop smiling.
I just met two platypuses! And I had to hurry, because it sounded like we had a lot more left to see.
I dried off, pulled on my chinos and shirt, and joined Cam back by the tank.
We said our goodbyes, and I gave them Bret’s number. He was the assistant coach that helped friends and families deal with tickets, transportation and hotels. I said they could DM me on Instagram if they needed to as well.
I shrieked when we were back on the sidewalk.
“What?” Cam asked, concerned. “What happened?”
I held up the photo of us with the puggles.
“We’re all so adorable,” I said.
“Well, yeah,” Cam agreed.
“Okay to post?”
“Post away, and feel free to tag me,” Cam said. “Hashtag boyfriend.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Sorry, I know I shouldn’t joke about that. Wishful thinking,” Cam said, wistfully.
“No worries. I liked the idea for sure,” I said, typing away.
#dreamscometrue #brisbanezoo #puggles #babyplatypuses #yesitsplatypusesnotplatypi @CamCamKaneKane
“Thank you again, Cam. That was the experience of a lifetime. No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.” I looked around and didn’t see anyone, so I snuck him a quick kiss. Cam’s eyes widened, but he smiled once the surprise wore off. I liked relaxed Cam.
Well, I loved relaxed Cam
“It was my pleasure, and you deserve it. And it was my idea, but you have to thank Coach too. He made the phone call.”
“I will thank him, don’t you worry.”
I suckered Cam into the aviary with some dirty promises, and it was so cute to watch him flinch at every little bird that flitted by him.
“I can’t believe you’re afraid.”
“Hey, I’m just not super comfortable with them, okay?” he said, ducking another one.
I didn’t make him suffer for long. I wanted to see it because of what Kate said earlier.
It was pretty impressive. They kept a lot of the older architecture despite having updated most of the enclosures.
Cam’s ringtone went off, and he said “Coach” to me before answering it.
He nodded a lot and agreed with whatever Coach was saying, before looking surprised, and said, “Alright, give them my number. We can do that.”
“What’s up? What did he want?”
“It seems the zoo execs weren’t aware of our visit until your post. PR knew we were here, but hadn’t realized how popular you were, and now they want some official photos of us with some other animals.”
“That sounds amazing.”
Cam smiled as I picked him up in a big hug.
“Flashing your sexy ass in your ACs finally pays off.”
“So funny!” I mock-laughed in his face, but I was excited. “I wonder what we’re going to see.”
The rest of the day was a whirlwind. We got to meet two red pandas. They were so cute, each one sitting on its own tree stump. Cam and I had a bunch of treats that we fed them, but grapes were their favorite. They looked like kawaii raccoons and weren’t closely related to giant pandas at all.
Every zookeeper we met knew a lot about each species and spoke with such passion about the animals in their care. We learned something interesting from each one of them.
The PR team wanted official shots with us feeding the giraffes, so we got to do that again. Cam asked if we could see the baby rhino up close, since they were right next to the giraffes, and they took us around to the side of the rhino exhibit.
I admitted to Cam that the baby rhino gave the puggles a run for their money.
Athena was her name. I had heard baby rhinos being called tank puppies before, and now I could see why.
She was running around all over the place, having the time of her life, but she was built.
And her mom showed us how big she could grow.
Athena ran right up to the keeper at the fenceline and stopped long enough to be given a little rubdown.
Then she sat on her butt and rolled onto her side.
I could hear Cam’s delight, and it made me feel warm inside. The keeper explained the babies really liked tactile, but also that mom was still very protective, so we weren’t allowed any closer. Since the mom was over two tons, I was fine watching from where we were.
After that, they took us behind the scenes into their nursery and we helped the zookeepers feed a bottle to a tiny baby anteater.
Its mother hadn’t cared for it well enough, so they had intervened.
They explained it was a common occurrence for any first time mom.
Its little tongue had to come all the way out to drink.
I was in heaven. This day had sealed my plans. I wanted to study animals.
We were with the zoo’s PR people for almost two hours and by the time we were finished, we had seen the entire zoo.
"You ready to head out?" Cam asked.
"I think so, but I want to check out the gift shop before we go."
"Lead the way, map man."