Maybe tomorrow

Chapter 20

When Charlie and I finally got home it was almost half past 3 p.m.

He hadn’t stopped talking since we had started our way home. Mrs Black had taken him to the Bronx zoo. Charlie’s cheeks were flushed from excitement and the cold wind, and he was jumping and running, so that it was almost hard for me to keep up with him, even though my legs were much longer than his.

 

At the beginning he had seemed sad because neither Damien nor I had been there with him, but he seemed to forget about that the more he talked about the animals he had seen.

I had taken him to the zoo in Pittsburg once, but it wasn’t nearly as big or exciting.

In fact, you could probably hardly call it a zoo because there were probably less than 50 species and the biggest had been a lazy, old cow.

It was more of a petting farm anyways, which had been fine by me because I got scared of animals bigger than a dog even when they were behind a thick glass panel.

 

We finally entered our apartment building and Charlie pressed the button. The doors slid open and we stepped inside.

“Mommy, it was so cool! Can you and daddy come too next time?

We can all feed the monkeys together. There were so many, and I even touched one! But they were really small, so you don’t have to be afraid.

And sometimes there is a dolphin show but it is only in the afternoon. Can we go in the afternoon?” I laughed while the elevator started moving.

 

“Yes, I think we can do that. We can all go together. You, your dad, me, Clary, Graham, and your grandparents. But I am not sure if we can go this weekend, you know there is the party that I am going too with Clary, right?”, I asked, and he nodded.

 

“Yes, I know, and I will stay with uncle Graham. Do you think he can show me his car then? He told me, he has a really fast car and that we can drive with it? Can I, mommy? Please!”

“Yes, of course you can go but promise me you two will be careful.”, I responded, and he nodded.

 

“Of course. I am four now. I can take care of-”, he stopped himself when the elevator doors opened.

“What is that?”, he asked, and I followed his gaze. There was a huge blue box with a bow on it in front of our apartment door.

 

We stepped out of the elevator and I frowned a little.

“I have no idea.” Charlie walked towards the door and picked up the card that was laying on the box.

 

“What does it say? Whoever wrote that has a terrible handwriting”, he said, pursing his lips while looking at the card. He had started to learn how to read because there really wasn’t much else for him to do as the writing was in cursive.