“The backstage experience?” Jacob had thought he was the only one with such privileges.
Amanda grinned at him. “You’ll see.” She opened her purse to grab her wallet, which sent Jacob scrambling for his cash supply.
“I got this,” he said. “My treat.”
“You don’t have to pay,” the cashier said. “God knows you do enough for this place.”
“We insist,” Amanda said. “And we’ll also buy three bags of sheep pellets.”
Sheep pellets? Jacob paid their admission and purchased three little brown bags that were stapled shut.
“What is this?” Julie said as one of the bags was passed to her.
“Don’t you want to feed the goats and sheep?” Amanda asked.
Julie worried her lips together. “Do they bite?”
The cashier leaned close to her. “They don’t bite, but watch out for the big brown goat. He’s a greedy one who will try to steal your entire bag.”
Julie nodded in understanding and cradled her sack of feed against her chest.
“I’ll let Margie know you’re around,” the cashier said to Amanda.
“Thanks, Frances.”
Jacob followed his two ladies across the hollow-sounding wooden floor, out onto a porch, and down a set of dusty steps to an uneven path. He glanced around, looking for signs directing them to the exhibits, or at least to a wide cement path that would be easy on sandaled feet.
“Chickens!” Julie cried, approaching the free-roaming birds that didn’t look like any chicken Jacob had ever seen.
The dark-gray-and-white-speckled birds fluttered away from her, releasing a chorus of raucous chirping that made Jacob wince. The noisy creatures were definitely not chickens.
Amanda chuckled and squatted next to Julie, rubbing the center of her back soothingly. “Those are guinea fowl,” she said. “You’ll have to stand still and watch them quietly, or they’ll run away.”
“Can I pet one?” Julie looked up at her aunt, and Jacob was struck by the resemblance between the two.
Julie’s eyes and nose resembled her mother’s, and he hadn’t ever noticed that Amanda had the same nose. Amanda’s eyes were a different color—hazel rather than blue—but the shape of them was definitely a Lange family trait. His attraction to her was inevitable, it seemed. While Tina had the personality of a cactus, outwardly she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever laid eyes on. He’d always liked Amanda for her personality, but he couldn’t deny that she had the physical looks he admired most. So why had he fallen for Tina first? It was an unfortunate fact that he’d probably never understand. But if he hadn’t married Tina, he wouldn’t have Julie, and he’d face any hardship to have his little girl in his life. Even put up with her mother.
“Guinea fowl don’t like to be touched,” Amanda said, “but watch what they’re doing while they walk. They eat all sorts of bugs. Even ticks and wasps.”
The small flock of birds marched across the grass side by side, devouring any living creature stirred up by their scaly feet.
“And butterflies?” Julie asked.
“Sometimes. If you keep these birds in your orchard or vegetable garden, they’ll keep all the pest insects away.”
“Better than bug spray,” Jacob said, knowing this kind of nature stuff inspired Amanda.
She smiled up at him, the sunshine catching golden highlights in her hair. “Exactly.”
“What’s an orch herd?” Julie asked.
“Where they grow lots of trees,” Jacob said. “Like apples and oranges and stuff.”
Julie looked to Amanda, who nodded her agreement.
Did Julie think he was an idiot or something? Her mother certainly made that opinion of him well known. Jacob scowled, pulled a pair of sunglasses from the low collar of his tank top, and shoved them onto his face.
“Want to see a lemur?” Amanda asked.
“Like on Madagascar?” Julie asked.
“Exactly.”
Jacob was underwhelmed by the first exhibit. A lemur sat on a platform just above eye level, his long striped tail dangling several feet behind him. He watched them with enormous yellow eyes as he used human-like hands to grab fruit from a bowl and bring it to his mouth. His cage was clean, but barely the size of a small closet. One side was draped with a blue tarp, presumably for shade.
“Up, Daddy!” Julie said, lifting her arms to him. “I can’t see his face.”
Jacob lifted her onto his shoulders, and she reached out to grab the wire cage as she peered inside.
“He has fingers,” Julie said.
“All primates do,” Amanda said. “And where most animals have sharp claws, primates have flat fingernails.”
Julie shifted against Jacob’s neck as she looked down at Amanda. “Can I put some nail polish on them?”
Amanda chuckled. “I don’t think he’d hold still long enough.”
This was why Jacob had wanted to bring Amanda along today. One of the reasons. She was so smart. She knew things about animals and stuff. Julie could learn new things from her, where Jacob mostly felt like an escort on such excursions. And he’d never tell Amanda, but he liked learning science-type things from her as much as Julie did. He’d been terrible at school, not because he hadn’t wanted to learn, but because he got absolutely nothing from books. As far as he was concerned, books were only good as paperweights. And even when he’d paid attention in class and understood everything the teacher explained, when it came to tests, he hadn’t bothered trying. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of them. So he’d focused on the only thing he was good at: singing. He was so glad that Julie was smart like her aunt and hadn’t inherited the brick her father had for a brain.
“Why is his cage so small?” Jacob asked.
“Most of the exhibits are small here,” Amanda said. “This is a rescue zoo. So you’ll find animals that other zoos didn’t want or couldn’t keep, injured animals that need to be isolated, exotic animals that someone had thought would make a good pet but couldn’t keep, and retired service animals.”
Jacob scowled. “Like dogs?”
“Monkeys,” Amanda said. “Every animal here has a story.” She pointed to a little sign on the cage that explained the lemur’s origins and how he’d come to the zoo. Beneath it was a collection box. Amanda read the sign to Julie—and Jacob, not that he was willing to admit that.
“Just because he didn’t get along with other lemurs doesn’t mean he should be kept in such a small cage,” Jacob said, staring intently into the creature’s intelligent eyes as it nibbled on an orange wedge.
“They do the best they can here,” Amanda said. “All the funding comes from paid admissions and donations. They don’t get any financial assistance from the government. That’s why I volunteer.”
Jacob reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He took out a twenty-dollar bill and stuffed it into the slot of the lemur’s collection box.
“What are you doing, Daddy?” Julie asked.
“Giving this lemur some money.”
“Can I give him some money too?” she asked.
Jacob pulled Julie from her perch on his shoulders and handed her another bill. She stuffed it into the collection box and smiled up at him with pride. Jacob stroked her silky hair and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s nice to give when you can.”