Topic: We're Building a Zoo ... and Other Stuff, Too!

Mairead Harker

Date: 2012-04-12 20:20 EST
Maggie pursed her lips as she sat at the kitchen table with her pencils and crayons strewn about. She had drawn a few pictures of swings and trees, but somehow that wasn't what was in her head. She had bigger dreams. Her lip curled inward like an old man puffing on a cigar. It was what her parents had come to call her thinking face. Woe be to anyone that got in Maggie's path and didn't have the answers needed. It was the beginning of trips to the library and jaunts across worlds even if it was only in the little girl's mind. It was when that old man face became the bright impish grin that was Maggie's very own that she had her own idea and the world needed to get out of her way.

"Mama! Where's the pictures from the big zoo!! The one Grandpa Harker says used to be called Boney Park!" Maggie called out in an excited voice.

Rhiannon chuckled as she stirred the marinara sauce that simmered on the stove. "Downstairs in the family room on the big bookshelf." Once upon a time, Regent's Park had been called Marylebone Park. It was one of those little history lessons in the form of stories that elder Richard Harker liked to tell his precocious granddaughter.

"Ok, I get it!" And off she ran down the stairs to the family room that served as library, game room, and in house billiard room! In her zeal to find the pictures, Maggie had forgotten all about the giant plush polar bear that had become a cue holder. That is, until it roared! Her eyes widened at the noise and then she laughed at herself for being a scaredy cat! Originally, the life sized bear had been given to Maggie by her godfather. While it still belonged to her, Bertie had long ago filled not just the shelves in the little girl's room with plush representatives of just about every animal he could think of, but an entire room in the lower level as well!

The rushing about in room next to the office caught the attention of both father and godfather, who poked their heads out the door to see what the whirling dervish on two little legs was up to this time.

"Denny, what do you think she's on about this time?" Bertie asked as his brows almost reached his hairline.

Dennis Harker was having one of those parental moments where he was trying not to break up laughing at his eldest child's antics. "Might be best to wait until the dust cloud settles before we ask."

The pair was about to get back to work, but they had been spotted by a pair of sparkling hazel eyes and then came the voice that hollered "DA! I needs more papers to draw, please!" She bounded over to tackle one leg from each of the men that now had no escape! When Dennis crouched to pick up his daughter, Bertie was released from the clutches of the little imp that had tackled him. "I'm makin' a park for the zoo! Like Boney Park!!"

It took a moment for Dennis to mentally run through the stories his father had told. "Oh, you mean Regent's Park, Maggiebug" Where the big zoo is?"

Her small forehead crinkled as she thought about that. "YEAH! The one with the creme ponies and the big," her little arms gestured widely, "fishy house!"

While father and daughter discussed the zoo and its residents, Bertie gathered up paper and other drawing supplies.

"I gotta hurry up and finish this, Da! Auntie Aja is waitin' on it. And and...and..." she paused a moment, "I gots school tomorrow! Magic school!!!" Again, her arms were gesturing widely. Magic school, had Dennis even thought about that when he was a lad" He'd grown up in London in a lovely neighborhood and was, sometimes, the boy that mothers warned their daughters about! He'd done plenty of things that caused him to ponder locking his own daughters in a tower once they were old enough to date or even notice boys. Maggie's comment of "And Doran and his sister, Azure might be there, too!" gave him pause to reconsider that tower!

"Who's Doran?" He'd already heard who Azure was.

"Da," she gave him one of those expressions that spoke volumes including an eye roll, "Doran's gonna be my BFF. Maybe Azure, too. That okay with you?"

"That depends, what kind of BFF did you mean?"

That made the child laugh. "Silly Da!! Like you and Uncle Bertie! Bestest Friends Forever! They're gonna come over to play some day!"

Bertie was making snorfling noises in the background. Maggie had a way of getting around her father like no one else could. Dennis gave his BFF one of those looks that spoke volumes. Just wait until YOU have children.....Then it was his turn to snorfle while he watched Maggie's godfather's jaw drop from the silent salvo fired.

When Maggie was back off to kitchen with the stack of paper, a box of colored pencils and photo album to add to her stack of supplies, the two men looked at each other.

"Tower?" Bertie asked.

"Tower!" Dennis answered with a determined nod.

From the hallway on the floor above came a woman's voice in answer, "Doghouse!"

"I really have to remember how good her ears are!" Bertie said as laughter rang.

((Thank you to the players behind Richard D Harker and Albert Hall! :) ))