Red Hart Magic Read Online Free Page B

too. They went to church in the morning, Aunt Elizabeth seeing that they were both dressed as she said “suitably.” This church was a large one where people did not seem to know even those who shared the pew with them. Nan missed the friendliness of Grandma's church. Chris sat stolidly, as if all were an ordeal to be endured.
    But the afternoon was even worse. They had dinner in another big restaurant, and then Aunt Elizabeth summoned one of her ever-helpful taxis and carried them off to the park, where there was a zoo, a lake, and other supposedly interesting things. Chris dragged along so far behind that Aunt Elizabeth was plainly annoyed when she turned for about the tenth time to see where he was.
    Nan watched a black leopard. She felt sorry for it because the animal was never still, pacing back and forth in its cage as if it wanted to be free. She did not like the big apes at all;one of them made faces and spit at people who had stopped by the cage to watch. But the birds were beautiful with their many colors and plumed tails; and there were two lion cubs, who were rolled up together on a blanket, asleep like kittens.
    Her feet began to ache, and she was glad when Aunt Elizabeth took them into a place where Coke and ice cream were sold and they could sit down for a while. It was then that Aunt Elizabeth met a friend by the cash register and told them to run along and find a table and wait for her.
    For the first time that afternoon, Chris spoke directly to Nan. “She thinks we're little kids!”
    He shoved his dish of ice cream with dangerous force off the tray he was carrying. Nan was just in time to save it from crashing to the floor. She pushed it back in his direction. “I guess she thinks we like such things. Maybe she doesn't know.”
    Chris glowered at the ice cream, digging a spoon into it as if striking back at the world. “I'm not about five years old,” he exploded. “The zoo, for pete's sake! The zoo, yet!”
    “The birds were nice.” Nan licked at a spoonful of hot fudge sundae. “I didn't like that monkey though, the one who spit at people.”
    Chris grinned crookedly. “That ape had the right idea. Why not spit at a bunch of dumb people come to look at you shut up in there? I don't like to see animals in cages—not ever.”
    Nan found she could agree with that, remembering the leopard.
    “But they're all being killed off. If any are to be saved, they'll be in cages.”

    Chris shook his head vigorously. “Don't have to be in cages. You never saw Lion Country, I guess. They have them outside there, free. They walk right across the road. You can drive through in a car, but you have to keep your windows shut and go real slow.”
    “When did you see that?” Nan asked.
    “Last year. I went to Florida with Butch Wilson and his folks. We took some camera shots. There was one old lion sleeping there as if he didn't care about anything. And in the next section we had to stop the car ‘cause a mother antelope was feeding her baby—right in the middle of the road. None of them were shut up in cages there.”
    “My grandma's in Florida,” Nan announced. “When I go to see her, maybe we can visit your Lion Country.”
    “You used to live with her. How come you didn't go to Florida with her?”
    Nan carefully used her spoon to combine fudge sauce with ice cream, pretending to study what she was doing.
    “Didn't she want you around any more?”
    Now she raised her eyes to answer hotly, “Of course she did! But Dr. Simmons said she had to go and live where it was warm. And the only place she could afford was Sunny-side Retirement Acres. They don't like children there—you can only visit. Then Mother got married.”
    Chris's face turned blank. His mouth was again a sullen line. “Yeah, they got married,” he said flatly. “And you had to come to Aunt Elizabeth's to live. You don't need to go into that.”

    “I didn't ask to come here!” she flashed. “She's not my aunt.”
    Chris shrugged.