At the Zoo With

At the Zoo with

Sam and Lucca

by Asbjorn Lonvig

Lucca is 3 years old and Sam is 6.

Lucca goes to a daycare center called "the Little Imps".

Sam goes to school in the preschool class in

the School in Middlefield.

Lucca and Sam are neighbors.

They live on Middlefield Road.

Lucca lives in number 584 and Sam lives in number 566.

Sometimes Lucca calls Sam sixty six.

Then Sam smiles and calls Lucca eighty four.

Here they are, Lucca and Sam.

Ready to go to the zoo.

The sun is shining and Lucca is wearing her most beautiful red summer dress.

Sam wears his white vest with no sleeves on

and

his shorts with red and white stripes.

Lucca thinks Sam is cool.

Sam thinks Lucca is cute.

Sam's father is a school teacher at MiddlefieldSchool.

He has taken a day off so that he can

go with Lucca and Sam.

Sam's father is called Samuel S. Samuelson,

but at the school they always call him

Samuel the Manual.

That is because he knows everything.

If you have any questions at all,

just ask Sam's father.

Sam's father brought a basket

with sandwiches and something to drink.

And in the basket, of course, he also had a book.

Well, really, he had two books.

One about animals and a book written by the famous American writer,

Ernest Hemingway.

It was called "For Whom the Bell Tolls".

As they entered Middlefield's Zoo they saw a flamingo.

The flamingo stands on one leg when it rests.

How many eggs does a flamingo have in its nest?

Sam asked.

One egg, his father answered.

Sometimes two eggs.

One out of 300 times the flamingo has two eggs in its nest.

Sam's father answered as always quite correct.

Why does the flamingo look so angry?

Sam asked.

The flamingo is not angry, but its the beak has that shape because flamingoes eat
by filtering the water

with the upper part of their beaks lowest down in the water,

Sam's father answered.

Sam did not quite understand.

But he was satisfied that the flamingo

was not angry.

Lucca shouted, Oh, look!

and pointed at the parrots.

What a beautiful row of parrots!

Yes, Samuel the Manual said.

The parrots live in places that are very colorful.

That is why parrots are so colorful.

It is easy to understand that a flamingo or a parrot is a bird.

But a penguin cannot fly.

Penguin live in the Antarctic and a few live in Australia

and in South America.

Lucca's father has seen very small penguins in South Australia

on an island called

PhilipIsland.

I don't know whether there are any in South Africa.

I will just look in my book, Sam's father said.

Sam's father, Samuel S. Samuelson, called Samuel the Manual, Lucca and Sam enjoyed

themselves.

Now they found the prison horse.

Lucca's uncle calls it a prison horse.

Of course it is a zebra.

It is too short to look over the fence,

and that is why it stands on two legs.

The names of the giraffes are Tall Charlie and Not So Tall Charlie.

Tall Charlie is blue with yellow dots.

Not So Tall Charlie is yellow with blue dots.

Bernhard is a monkey.

He loves to climb in trees and he loves bananas.

On his head he always wears his blue cap with the yellow button.

That is how you always can see

which monkey is Bernhard.

In a house with bars there are lions

and tigers.

Mister Lion has a huge mane.

Tigers have stripes.

Not two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.

Now I am tired,

Lucca said.

And they went home to Middlefield Road.

Lucca wondered why she was so lucky as to have friends like

Sam and Sam's father.

As Lucca met her

mother and father

she told,

and told, and told, and told, and told, and told,

and told

them about this wonderful day.

Published by Asbjorn Lonvig Fairy Tales

DK DBC Publisher Number: 92419

ISBN: 978-87-92419-03-3