“Hello?” I heard.

“Who’s there?” I asked nervously. There was no answer. My palms began to sweat, and my knees started to shake.

One week earlier, Tom exclaimed,“Claire, you’re hired!”

“R-r-r-eally?” I stammered.

“Yes, of course! I think that you are going to make a great addition to the staff here at the Milwaukee Zoo,” replied Tom

“Thank you so much! I won’t let you down,” I promised. I then raced home to tell my parents. I was smiling from ear to ear as I strode home.

At that very moment I heard it: “Hello?” I froze in my place. I peered over my shoulder for somebody else, but nobody was there

“Hello?” I answered back nervously.

“Oh, you must be the new girl,” they responded. I couldn’t take the voices messing with my mind anymore, so I was as nervous as actors before opening night. I didn’t what was happening, and I was scared for my life, so I sprinted home. My legs felt like jelly, and my heart was beating at a very rapid pace. I jiggled my keys into the big front gate as I locked it up. I ran so fast that I could have beaten Usain Bolt in a race.

I walked into work the next day, and my mind was all over the place. I didn’t know if I would hear the voices again, and I was sure that nobody was there with me last night. Do I tell my coworkers? I wandered into the break room, and yelled, “Was anybody here last night at like 9:50?”

“No!” they all answered glumly.  Oh, no! If nobody was there then who was talking?

I didn’t know what else to say so I blurted out, “The animals talk!” Everybody looked me with wide eyes and their mouths were gaping holes. I grabbed a cup of coffee, so that I could look into the bottom of the coffee cup instead of them. My coworker Yolanda walked over to me and whispered, “I don’t think you need anymore of that.”

“What do you mean?” I sassed back.

“You just seem out of sorts this morning. I mean you think that the animals can talk,” she retorted quietly, “Maybe you should take a break from the coffee.”

“I’m not lying!” I shouted. “Why does nobody believe me?”

Yolanda grabbed my arm and said, “Why don’t you take the day off and get some rest?”

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled in angst. “I’m going to go do my job, unlike you guys, who just sit in the break room not listening to new employees.”

I stormed to the hippopotamus exhibit, where I had heard the voice the previous night. I was making sure that everything was setup to unlock the zoo when I heard a voice.

“Hello?” I heard it again.

“Hello?” I answered. “Who are you?” Before whoever it was could answer, I went on my walkie talkie and yelled for Yolanda. I had to prove her wrong.

“Yolanda? Yolanda?” I shouted into the walkie talkie. “Come quick!” I heard her sneakers on the pavement coming closer.

“What is it this time, Claire?” Yolanda asked sarcastically.

“Listen for yourself,” I bragged. She tapped her foot in irritation as silence filled the zoo. It’s as though the hippos were nervous to talk to people other than me.

“I swear! Somebody was talking to me!” I explained. Yolanda patted me on the shoulder and walked away.

I stomped into the breakroom and asked, “Does anybody believe me?” They all looked at me with sympathetic eyes, ands I felt my face start to heat up. “I’ll take that as a no,” I say sheepishly. Am I really imagining things?….. No! I know what I heard. I need to go back there and confirm that it really was the animals.

This time I’ll need to be silent, so that I can catch them in action. I took off my Converse, and tiptoed to the hippo exhibit in my socks. Mumbled tones filled the air as I got closer to the exhibit. I grabbed the cold railing while I peered over the edge. I froze when I saw two fat hippos conversing with each other.

“Um… hello?” I queried.

“Oh, hello! You are the girl we’ve been talking too, correct?” said Borris, one of the hippos.

“Yes!” I exclaimed

“I’m sure you are wondering why we can talk?” bragged Borris.

“Well, actually,” I responded

“Hey! I was talking,” argued Borris. “Anyways… it all started when an awful wizard came to our sanctuary here. He didn’t know how to do any spells!. He didn’t know any spells! So he was trying cast a spell to make more water in this little pond to my right, but he ended up making us talk.” I took a step back while listening to this; my eyes widened and my legs started to wiggle.

I didn’t know what to say, so I exclaimed, “My break is done, I better be off!” I sprinted back to the breakroom to tell everybody else. They have to believe me now because I actually have a story…… Although it does sounds a bit made up, but it is real! I recited the entire story word for word and I still got the “honey, are you okay?” looks on from my coworkers. I was filled up from head to toe with rage! Why aren’t they believing me?! How do I prove that I’m not crazy?

I slumped back to the hippos and told them how nobody believed me.

“Why does it matter if they believe you or not?” asked Borris.

“Because if they believe me they won’t think that I’m crazy, ” I mumbled.

“It doesn’t matter what they think!” Borris explained. “You know that we talk and that’s all that matters.” talking to Boris and Morris, the other hippo, I had a new perspective on life, and that was to not care what other people think of me.