Solving Zoe Read Online Free Page B

mine, Zozo,” he said, shaking his head.
    â€œWhat’s so amazing about it?” she teased him. “They don’t want Tuscany, for a change?”
    â€œJust see it. That’s all I’m going to tell you. Here’s the address. Meet me there after school tomorrow.”
    She tried to get him to tell her more, but he refused. The next day Zoe easily found the elegant brownstone, and rapped on the door with the bronze knocker. A tall, bony man with a thin, graying ponytail opened the door. At first she thought she must have read the address wrong, but then Dad appeared and hugged her against his big stomach, enveloping her with his familiar turpentiney smell.
    â€œThere you are, Zozo,” he said, grinning. “This is Isaac Wakefield. Isaac, this is my daughter Zoe. The one I told you about.”
    â€œPleasure,” grunted Isaac. He turned his back and gestured for her to follow. They walked past a high-ceilinged parlor on the right filled with massive tangles of wire, almost like giant Brillo pads.
    â€œIsaac’s a wire sculptor,” Dad said. “Very famous.”
    â€œHogwash,” Isaac shouted over his shoulder. Zoe laughed, because it was the first time outside a cartoon that she had ever heard anyone use that expression.
    And apparently she wasn’t there to see his sculptures. He led them up the narrow stairs to the second floor. “There, there, and there,” he said, pointing to three different rooms. Zoe looked at her father questioningly.
    â€œReptiles,” Dad explained, grinning. “Isaac studies them. All different species. Take a look around, Zozo. Don’t be afraid.”
    She followed Isaac from room to room, gaping at the gleaming, orderly glass terrariums filled with iguanas, geckoes, salamanders, skinks, turtles, newts, anoles, and whiptails. (But no snakes, thank goodness!) Each terrarium was its own miniature reptile world, carefully landscaped with rocks and cacti and grasses and weathered branches. And beside each terrarium was a clipboard holding charts with titles such as “Gecko #4: Cricket Consumption,” or “Iguana #2: Water.” Zoe watched as Isaac stood perfectly still in front of each terrarium, then scribbled something on the charts.
    â€œGot to be precise,” he said, still writing. “They look tough, but their ecosystems are actually pretty delicate. And too much food or water can throw everything off.”
    â€œWhoa,” Zoe whispered to her father. “This is incredible! But what are we doing here?”
    Dad smiled. “Isaac’s commissioned me to do his bedrooms. He wants me to paint three different lizard habitats.”
    â€œThree? I thought lizards just lived in deserts.”
    â€œSome do. And some live in woodlands. Also savannas.”
    â€œOh.” Zoe watched a tiny yellow-headed gecko nibble a strawberry. She wondered if it tasted sweet to him; or maybe to a gecko this tasted like a pepperoni pizza. How could you even know? “This is way better than Tuscany,” she said in Dad’s ear. “But I mean, why lizards ?”
    Suddenly Isaac was facing her. “Why not lizards?”
    She blushed. “I don’t know. They’re not exactly—” She struggled for a word.
    â€œCute? Cuddly?” His eyes sparkled mischievously.
    â€œWell, they aren’t really pets,” she tried to explain tactfully. “I mean, I saw your charts. They don’t even have names. They’re just like, Salamander #4.”
    â€œIt’s not their job to be cuddly. Or to have cuddly names. Just watch them, kiddo. Try to understand what you’re looking at, and try to keep your overheated emotional preteen reactions out of it.”
    Zoe laughed. This man was nuts, but she liked him for some reason.
    And afterward, when they walked home together, Dadtold her that Isaac lived alone (except for his thirty-two lizards). He had six kids (one of them