Sapphire

  *

  “Hello, darling!” Chloe smiled when I tapped on the door of her dressing room the next morning.

  “You’re so pretty!” I said, fingering the lace on her silk dressing gown. “Are you modelling again today?”

  “No, no, Sapphire,” Chloe said, alarmed. “Only weekdays, darling!”

  I was impressed at how she stood out from a crowd of hundreds with her tight jean shorts and sparkly tights with hearts and kisses on. She had everyday make-up on: blusher that made her cheeks a little pink, pink lip gloss that made her sparkle, pale blue eye shadow that framed her eyes, and silver eyeliner with glitter. She looked around eighteen, not twenty-one. Enviously, I changed into a pair of black gothic leggings, a tight-fitting blue top with lace silk and a loose black cardigan.

  “Right, darling, breakfast!” Chloe was making a batch of giant pancakes, and they were deliciously warm. She took a bottle of chocolate sauce out of the cupboard and gave me a plate with a flourish. I ate up immediately, loving the warm sweet pancake and the rich creamy sauce. Chloe tossed another in the frying pan, the pancake sizzling away like a sausage. She started telling me about her contract to go to America for a year, modelling along with the most famous models ever! As part of her contract, she would be allowed to let friends or family stay with her for a bit too, so Sylvie and I were staying for ten months, then coming back to the UK.

  “Hey, you two!” came a cheery voice from outside the door. “Do I smell pancakes?”

  “Yes, actually, you do,” called back Chloe, still tossing them high. She giggled as one stuck to the ceiling, obviously tossed a little too high.

  “Great!” Sylvie entered the cosy little room, filled with the homely smell of frying pancakes and chocolate sauce.

  We all sat down at the round table, eating pancakes and licking the sauce off delicately.

  “Where shall we go today?” Chloe munched, trying to think.

  “Can we just walk around the town, explore a bit, do some window-shopping, maybe a little real shopping?” I suggested hopefully.

  “Sure! Fab idea, Sapphire,” Chloe said.

  “Great,” murmured Sylvie, smiling.

  After showering and dressing, we walked along the busy pavements, watching soaring seagulls dip and dive for a few leftover chips lying on the cobbled streets. Excited children chose mountains of ice cream and ate them contentedly, and couples strolled slowly around the magnificent churchyard, tulips and bluebells blooming.

  We found a little row of Bed and Breakfasts, and a small fish and chip shop on the other side of the road. We walked into a nice-looking parlour and selected a cake from the huge menu, covered in fancy teacakes, scones, buns, cupcakes and fruitcake I’d ever seen. If I was still a child, I’d have gone with the richest, biggest chocolate cake, but as I am now older and more mature, I settled for a slice of Victoria sponge with thick jam and cream oozing out of the middle, and special glittery pink icing on the top, decorated in swirls across the edge. It was lovely, a taste of sweet butter icing and cream with jam, and sponge cake. Sylvie eventually decided on the caramel cupcake layered with cream and melted milk chocolate piled up on the top. Chloe had difficulty choosing too, but loved her iced bun, filled with sweet jam and decorated with hard silver balls.

  “Yum!” I exclaimed as soon as I had bitten into my delicious cake.

  “Gorgeous!” declared Sylvie, nibbling away at the chocolate on top.

  “Amazing!” squealed Chloe, licking at the jam in the middle with her pointy pink tongue.

  We finished our cakes, and then headed out again, Chloe and Sylvie drinking coffee heartily, me sipping a frothy white cappuccino.

  Sitting down, I saw a white sign with a picture of an elephant.

  “Edinburgh Zoo!” I shouted, pointing at the sign.

  “Only three miles away,” Chloe stood up, throwing her empty coffee cup into a nearby bin. “I’ll call a cab.”

  “Wow! I’ve always wanted to go to Edinburgh Zoo,” Sylvie said quietly to me.

  Chloe took out her phone, dialling a number quickly. She pressed the ‘call’ button, and waited for a few seconds. A voice on the other line started asking questions, then informed Chloe they had no available cabs.

  “Well, that’s annoying,” mumbled Sylvie, realising we wouldn’t be able to go to Edinburgh Zoo.

  “Look! That bus goes to the zoo!” I cried, pointing at it. We ran over, paid the fare and hopped on happily.

  “Well done, Sapphire!” Sylvie said to me, grinning.

  As we got off at the right stop, a gaggle of geese-like birds started to honk noisily.

  “Hey! Pelicans!” Sylvie informed us knowledgeably, obviously knowing lots more than we did.

  “Right …” Chloe saw the size of the queue. “Oh no!”

  “Look, that’s only those big schools. This is our queue.” Sylvie steered us towards a small queue.

  “Phew!” We all giggled together.

  Once we’d paid and been given our tickets, we stepped in to the zoo. Cages of big birds surrounded us, honking noisily and squawking.

  “Look!” called Sylvie, seeing a big sign with a picture of a panda on. “I didn’t know there were pandas!”

  “Let’s go!”

  “No – we have to book before you can see the pandas,” wailed Sylvie miserably.

  “Oh!” replied Chloe, smirking a little strangely.

  I was a little disappointed, as pandas were my favourite animals, but I said cheerily, ”Let’s go and see the penguins!”

  “Aww!”

  “They’re so cute!”

  “Adorable!”

  We all loved the tiny penguins of this side of their huge pool. Some were chinstrap penguins, some were Adelie penguins and some were rockhopper penguins, all swimming swiftly up and down the massive pool, or sunbathing on the smooth white pebbles. Little nests with umbrellas had been constructed for them so they could have shade from the sun while sitting on their eggs!

  The other bigger penguins were king penguins, their gold and white and black plumage standing out perfectly, making them look magnificent. They were at least double the size of the small rockhopper penguins, and much faster in the pool too.

  We saw the rhino in their big sandy enclosure, huge strong iron bars preventing it from escaping, the pelicans in their deep lake stocked with slippery fish, the giraffes in a tall house. The ostriches ran around contentedly, sticking their head in the sand or pecking at the bags of food people carried for the parakeets. One ostrich came over to me, sticking its large, sparsely feathered head out of the wire mesh. It was so comical I started to laugh, but soon the strong ostrich had hold of my two bags of food, splitting one at the bottom. Trying to hold it tight, I stopped the steady stream of bird food falling out, but the ostrich had other ideas. I giggled as it slotted its head back through the bars, tilted at an angle this time to try and nip the bag yet again. But I had put my hand over where the food came out.

  “Ouch!” I cried as the ostrich pecked me. My hand wasn’t bleeding, but a little red and bruised. By now, it had hold of the bottom, turning its head round so it could gulp up the food.

  Chloe stepped back, her fear of little creepy-crawlies growing.

  Sylvie was fond of all animals and birds, even spiders. She was a little cautious, but edged the paper bag out of the ostrich’s beak. Carefully, she patted its scrawny head, and retreated back to the other side of the bars.

  “Wow! Did that horrid ostrich peck you?” Chloe examined her hand, turning it over gingerly.

  “No, no, it was very gentle,” Sylvie said in her quiet, silvery, reassuring voice.

  I took Sylvie’s arm and we walked around all the big aviaries again, while Chloe sat down in the sun with her phone and began texting Mark, her boyfriend.

  “Hey, Sapphire, look at this,” Sylvie beckoned me over anxiously. A tiny young bird was lying on the floor, wings spread out scarily, looking dead.

  “Oh,” I said, upset but not that bothered. r />
  “A goldfinch,” said Sylvie before I had time to ask.

  “But – it’s dead!” I exclaimed disgustedly as Sylvie scooped it up and nestled it.

  “No, no,” Sylvie replied determinedly. “It’s not dead.”

  I protested but Sylvie kept it snuggled up, worried that someone would hurt it or touch it. I was sure there was nothing we could do, but Sylvie devoted her heart to it.

  In the mid-afternoon, when we had met up with Chloe again, we grew hungry. After the bacon butties and pancakes and cake in that fancy teashop, we shouldn’t be hungry until supper, but because of all our walking around in the beaming sun, we were ravenous!

  “I’ll go and get something,” Chloe said, yawning and stretching. A few boys stared, gobsmacked. I put my hands on my hips and arched my eyebrows, shaking my long loose hair and curving my slim back. The boys just had eyes for Chloe, though.

  “Oh, I’ll have a lemonade and a chicken sandwich, Chloe,” Sylvie shouted after her, lying back in the sun.

  “Can I have a coke and a medium portion of chips?” I asked Chloe, running after her.

  “Sure,” Chloe replied happily. “Of course!”

  Sylvie and I held the shaking bird in our hands, mine quivering with nerves. Sylvie squeezed a drop of water from her bottle, dropping it into a bowl. The goldfinch slurped eagerly, sucking it up with its rounded beak.

  “What the heck …”Chloe arrived and stepped back in sheer astonishment. “Why is that thing there, Sylvie?”

  “Chloe! For goodness’ sake, it’s a goldfinch. We found it on our tour around,” she explained.

  “It’s great, honest. The poor thing was ill, so Sylvie’s going to help it heal,” I said happily, proud of my calm, clever big sister. I put my arms around her.

  “Huh! It had better not do its business around the house, Sylvie!” joked Chloe, but was serious too.

  “Here.” She gave me my chips and a coke, plopped her apple juice and cheese wrap down, then passed Sylvie a slice of thick white bread as well as a cup of cold tap water, and her food. Chloe grinned, saying, “I knew about the little goldfinch. The bread and water might just come in handy,” and poured the water into the tray we had found.

  “Thank you, Chloe,” Sylvie answered, pleased. She fed the bird carefully, tiny bit by tiny bit of bread, watching as it swallowed.

  “Aww! So cute!” I found myself liking the little helpless bird now. It cheeped faintly for more, so Sylvie went to the bird food shop over near the entrance to get a bag of seed.

  Happily, I lay back in the lovely weather. I liked the reassuring sound of children playing, people talking, birds singing, animals calling and the fresh wind fluttering.

  “Is she asleep?” whispered Sylvie as she arrived back at the shady spot where we were sitting.

  “No, no,” I replied, sitting up hurriedly.

  “Hey, darling,” Sylvie cooed at the rather puzzled finch. “Come to Sylvie and have some nice food, yes?”

  The goldfinch considered, head cocked to one side, but then hopped over happily. It had a mournful, wistful look to its glassy black eyes that made my heart melt, so I let it snuggle into the crook of my forearm, feeding it little seed titbits every so often.

  “Oh Sapphire, it’s taken a shine to you!” Sylvie gave me a pleased glance, nodding in approval when I was especially gentle and caring with the shaking goldfinch.

  We went round the zoo again, Chloe checking her watch every few minutes. I grew confused, but ignored her, looking at the roaring white lions, barking sea lions and squawking pelicans, which were waddling about noisily on the overcrowded grass.

  “Oh – can we go to see the penguins quickly? I really love them!” Chloe said, seeing the time on her watch.

  “Oh, the pandas are so cool! I wish we could see them,” I saw the picture on the sign and sighed wistfully.

  “Shame,” murmured Sylvie, looking longingly too.

  Chloe smirked.

  As I leant against the wooden railings of the penguin pool, I saw Sylvie whispering in delight to Chloe, who was grinning happily.

  I walked over, wondering what they were conferring about.

  “Hey, look! A spare ticket to see the pandas!” Chloe exclaimed, acting surprised.

  “Oh, wow, you really fooled me,” I said, unimpressed. “Chloe, you must have booked it on the bus!”

  “Ah, you figured it. Well, let’s go!” Sylvie sang, producing two more black-and-white tickets.

  “Great,” I answered.

  A frowning lady stamped our tickets, and then my hand too. The panda was smiling, paws up in the air. The frowning lady smiled at me, then winked.

  I smiled back too, admiring the panda on my hand. Rushing to catch up with Chloe and Sylvie, I entered the round glass area. A cub was frolicking excitedly, tumbling over and over on the dry hay. Another, more mature, panda wandered across a strip of green grass, eating an apple at the same time. In the smaller bathroom, a very big panda lolled lazily, half asleep.

  We watched them delightedly, holding hands tightly as the ticketholder announced the zoo was closing in ten minutes.

  “We’d better go,” Sylvie whispered quietly. “The zoo will be very busy, crowds pouring out of the exit. If we leave now, we’ll be able to get out and miss the crowds. Besides, the bus leaves in three minutes. If we miss it, we’ll have a half-hour wait in the wind,” she added, referring to the dramatic change in the weather.

  “Ok,” I went off to tell Chloe, who was attached to the tiny baby panda.

  “Come on,” I urged.

  “All right.”

  “Now!”

  “Coming!” she replied impatiently.

  She walked briskly after us, lagging behind often to peer at the animals. She didn’t like the noisy pelicans, with the ugly loose skin dangling from their gaping beaks, or the sad-looking old elephant, standing weakly in its tiny paddock, three fences blocking it fiercely. I felt sorry for it, being stuck in a paddock the size of a circus wagon all day, having to face the unforgiving weather, being teased by laughing children.

  “Ah! The gates – look!” Sylvie started to run frantically towards the gates, clutching her dainty handbag desperately, clenching her fists in determination, clasping the gates in annoyance and anger. They were shut! We were locked in for the night!

  “What, what?” screamed Chloe worriedly, rushing to her.

  “Oh no, no!” I cried, running over too. “What’s the time?”

  “Half five,” groaned Sylvie in despair. “Oh, Chloe, why did we have to stop to gawp at those ridiculous pelicans? We’re locked in!”