It was "Pride Week" at Wild Kingdom.
Pride Week was yet another event that was framed to get more than the usual number of guests to come visit, much like Birdapalooza, and this one was even more popular to be honest, because, well, kids love giant cats. Pride Week saw lion tamers come in from the local circus and do very basic and very safe tricks with the lions. Simple "jump through hoop" type tricks. Nothing that would irritate, aggravate or in any way harm the lions. As a result, this wound up being one of the most popular events of the year, and Nelly had to miss it, sitting in her office, doing paperwork. The door opened and she looked up, only to see Harvey slink on in. She smiled, pulled her glasses from her face and hung them around her neck.
"How can I help you today sir?" she asked.
"I have two deliveries for you," Harvey said, approaching the desk, and, with one palm placed firmly on the topside, leaned across to kiss her, then added, "that was the first, now here's the second."
He pulled his other arm out from behind his back and handed her a stuffed Alligator. Nelly took it and giggled. She leaned back in her chair and after a few moments of appreciating it, looked back up at Harvey, who'd now seated himself on the corner of the desk.
"Well this is cute, nobody has given me a plush as a present since elementary school Valentine's day," Nelly said.
"His name is Mr. Chomps," Harvey said, "I won him in a machine. Figured, ya know, he'd like it here more, at the zoo."
Nelly played with Mr. Chomps momentarily in her hands before hugging him to her chest and looking back up at Harvey, who was just smiling gently down at her.
"You're really cute, do you know that?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No, I don't, you should tell me more," she said, grinning.
Seemed like everywhere around the zoo, love was in the air.
***
"That was incredible," Robin said.
One of the performers who'd worked with the lions that day, an older woman named Maria, was sitting out during her break, as Robin sat along with her. Robin had no tours scheduled for the day - nobody did in fact - considering it was an event day, and so she spent most of her early afternoon simply watching the lion tamers work with the animals in front of crowds.
"How did you even get into this line of work?" Casper asked, sitting alongside Robin.
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware," Maria said, taking a long drink from a bottle of water, "it isn't exactly the kind of thing you often just plan to wind up in. Nobody goes to school for lion taming. It's a little...off the beaten path, you know? Technically, my job falls under the title of 'animal trainer', not just lion tamer, because you've got to be proficient in a handful of areas. Originally I was gonna be a veterinarian, cause I always had interest in animals, but then once I got into college I had this boyfriend who took me to a circus cause he had a cousin who was in it. Seeing her perform with big animals, that was all it took, man. I changed my entire career path that afternoon."
"Aren't you scared?" Casper asked.
"Of course I'm scared, it's a giant fucking cat that could tear my throat open with ease," Maria replied, laughing, "but, you know, you do what you do with confidence and hope for the best. Besides if you're properly trained - I mean I'm not saying accidents don't happen even with training but still - then you're much less likely to have that sort of accident."
"Hey nerds, what're we talking about?" Fletcher asked, taking a seat at the table, eating a churro and, surprising to everyone else, handing them their own as well.
"Lion taming," Robin said, biting into her treat.
"That's pretty cool," Fletcher said between chews.
"What's more dangerous in your opinion," Kyle asked, "lions or tigers?"
"Or bears? Oh my!" Fletcher said, making them laugh.
"Frankly," Maria said, taking another long swig of water before capping it shut, "I would say Tigers. Lions, I think are more powerful, but a lion really is just a giant cat. A tiger is a totally different breed of animal. I mean, sure, it's a giant cat too, but it isn't the same. You see plenty of wildlife photographers taking photos of themselves lounging with lions in the Savannah, you only ever see people interact with tigers during Vegas magic shows. The two are not the same."
Robin looked around at the people milling about, enjoying the event, and wondered where Sophie was. She said she'd join her when she was done with her janitorial shift - during events they always hired extra help for the day so she wasn't the sole one keeping the zoo clean - and yet here it was, early afternoon now, and she hadn't shown up. Robin took another bite of churro and, as she chewed, she just hoped everything was alright. Things between them were crystal clear now, emotionally, so she had no real reason to worry.
And yet, by the end of the day, she would be.
***
Harvey and Nelly had gone for a walk through the zoo, Mr. Chomps tucked tightly beneath Nelly's arm, as they each ate their own stick of cotton candy that was colored like lions. Harvey, after finishing half of his, held the stick away from his face and grimaced.
"I don't like the color of this," he lamented, "it makes me feel as though I'm eating pee in physical form."
"Ew, come on, I'm trying to enjoy this," Nelly said, laughing.
"I'm just sayin'," Harvey responded, shrugging, "fluffy pee treat."
They continued walking aways until they each finished, tossing the sticks into a nearby garbage can, then leaning against a small rail looking into a pen full of lion cubs and mothers. They were all laying around, being groomed by their respective parents, and Nelly smiled, hugging Mr. Chomps to closely to her chest.
"I keep thinking I'd like children one day," she said, "but, god, with the job being the way it is...would I even have the time to be a mother, you know? The animals are my children. I mean, ya know, not really cause giving birth to a giraffe as a human would probably kill me-"
"Not to mention raise a whole lotta questions about the depth of your-"
"-but still," Nelly continued, interrupting, holding back laughter, "you know what I mean. This zoo is what I care about. It's my child. It's what I worked my whole life to achieve, you know? I'm so happy to be in charge, and the last thing I wanna do is screw it up, much like a child, actually. I just worry that I wouldn't be capable of giving a kid the kind of attention it deserves. But god it would be nice."
"I imagine what it would be like to have kids sometimes," Harvey said, "but I totally get where you're coming from. It's a lifelong endeavor, and one that you're scared to do wrong. I guess it's okay to substitute stuff in the place of having a family, but...having a family, a proper family...there's something really nice about that. Knowing that, at the end of the day, you have something to come home to that loves you, that you work to protect and nurture. I like that."
Nelly blushed. Harvey wasn't like the other men she'd been interested in or involved with. In fact, that was mostly what she liked about him. She could tell her cared about things like family and love. That he held her interests close to his heart. She'd never felt so...claimed.
"I just wouldn't wanna do it wrong is all," Nelly said.
"You never could," Harvey said, "even if you tried to, I promise you never could."
"Hey," Nelly said, grinning, "how about we go into the butterfly hutch and make out?"
Harvey laughed as she took his hand and led him up towards the building. In so many ways, he made Nelly feel like a teenager again, and she loved it. As the doors to the Hutch closed behind them and Nelly locked them within it, all she could think of was how Mr. Chomps didn't need to see the adult acts that were about to go down amongst all these beautiful butterflies. He was simply much too innocent for that.
***
Fletcher and Casper had each gone their own ways, leaving just Robin now sitting with Maria as Maria prepared for her next show. As she stuffed things back into her backpack and got her costume back together, Robin bit her lip and finally spoke again.
"Do you ever regret not doing what you initially set out to do?" Robin asked, "like...say you had gone to veterinarian school, right, and gone on to work in the medical field helping animals instead of this. Would you feel fulfilled or would you feel like you'd missed out?"
"Well, I don't know that I'd feel like I'd missed out because unless I partook in it firsthand I wouldn't know what it is I'm missing to begin with, right?" Maria asked, putting her baton on the table and turning to face Robin, hand on her hip, "but I'd always wonder. That's the killer, I think. The things you don't do you always wonder for the rest of your life what it'd have been like if you had done them. And besides, if you can so easily be swayed by something different, then you weren't really all that attached to the original thing in the first place, were you?"
This statement was what Robin needed to hear. The last few months, working at Wild Kingdom, her blossoming relationship with Sophie and hiding it from Kyle...she'd had this twinge of guilt, as she rightfully should. She was, in essence, having an affair. But hearing someone tell her that, in the end, it was because she wasn't happy to start out with...well, that alleviated a good chunk of her guilt.
"And besides," Maria said, continuing, "the risk is worth the reward, I would say. It sure was for me. In a way, I'm still helping animals, because I know there's worse trainers out there, and I know I do it with a gentleness they wouldn't bring to the job, so in a way, I'm protecting them."
Robin nodded absentmindedly. Again, her thoughts turned to Sophie. Sophie had told her about how everyone she'd ever tried to be with had hurt her or rejected her, and Robin knew she would never do that. Robin knew she would only ever treat her the best that she could. Robin stood up from the table and pulled on her jacket over her uniform.
"It was really nice talking with you," Robin said, pulling her hair out from under her jacket, "and good luck with your next show, but I really have to go do something."
With that, Robin climbed into the nearby cart and started driving away. She really had to find Sophie.
***
Harvey and Nelly were laying on the floor of the Hutch, both breathing heavily, both nude. The Hutch had drop down shades, so nobody could see inside, and the entrances were locked, so nobody could walk in. Nelly ran a hand through her hair and sighed, grinning widely as Harvey coughed a few times. Nelly rolled her head to face him, and he did the same, smiling back at her.
"Who knew you were such a girly girl, wanting to fuck in a butterfly hutch," Harvey said.
"I'm allowed to be girly," Nelly said in response, giggling, "it's just a nice space. It's quiet and, most importantly, it's capable of being locked off and blocked off. Between the door locks and the shutters, we're completely alone in here. That's more than I can say for most exhibits around here."
Nelly rolled onto her side and looked at Harvey, who just kept looking back at her, smiling.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," she said quietly, "I'm just happy to be here with you. Doing this. Really, it's...it's all I've wanted for a very long time. I'm just...happy. I'm happy, and I don't...I don't really know how to feel that or to trust it. How do you trust it when you've been so unhappy for so long?"
"You just gotta," Harvey said, shrugging, "you just gotta give in, know that it's worth it, worth the risk. I know how you feel. It's taken me a long time to trust the happiness too, cause for so long I was convinced I didn't deserve it. But that's what you have to allow yourself to believe. It's selfish, but there's nothing wrong with that if it's for your well being. There's differences between positive and negative selfishness. Happiness is not on the negative spectrum."
Nelly nodded and rolled back onto her back, looking up at the butterflies fluttering away overhead. Did she deserve it? So many people had told her she didn't that she'd internalized that belief herself now. She chewed on her lip and thought about her last relationship. How much he'd taken from her. How much he'd belitted her. How much he'd made her think so lowly of herself. But she'd worked hard to get to where she was now, and she was proud of being the one in charge of Wild Kingdom, and she was happy being here with Harvey. Suddenly he rolled over, pinning her down a bit, making her laugh in surprise as he looked down at her face and gently brushing some hair from her face.
"It's beautiful in here," Harvey said, "but I think I'd rather look at you than butterflies."
With that, he leaned in and kissed her, then kissed down her jaw to her neck and to the crook of her shoulder. Nelly let herself go, just enjoying the moment as it started to rain outside, the water hitting the glass of the Hutch. He was right. Sometimes it was right to be selfish.
She was gonna try that someday.
***
Robin pulled over her cart near The Lions Den - a small playground area filled with lion themed equipment - and parked. She looked around until she spotted someone sitting underneath the slide, wearing a yellow rain slicker. Robin climbed out from the cart and, zipping her jacket up and tugging the hood on over her head, began walking towards them. As she reached the space, she sat on the end of a seesaw beside the slide and just waited, but the figure didn't move. That was when she could hear them crying. Sophie reached out and put her hand on their knee, causing them to finally look up.
"What are you doing out here?" Robin asked, "especially now that it's raining?"
"Where else would I be?" Sophie asked, wiping her face on her slicker sleeve, "this is where I belong, right?"
"What?" Robin asked, confused.
"...this morning, I overheard my parents talking...talking about me," Sophie said, "about my sister. My father said that they really got screwed cause one didn't get to grow up physically, and the other didn't get to grow up mentally, and as a result, they just had two failed children. It isn't my sisters fault she died, and it isn't my fault I'm stunted."
"You're not-"
"I am, but there's nothing wrong with that," Sophie said, interrupting, "I have no shame in it. So I figured, well, if everyone sees me as a child, then maybe I should only exist in childish spaces. I came here after my shift and I've just been hiding here ever since. I didn't think you'd come looking for me since it's an event day. I figured you'd just, ya know, have fun."
"Can't have fun without you around, you know that," Robin said, smiling as she shifted from the seesaw down to the underside of the slide, putting an arm around Sophie; Robin sighed and said, "you know, this event? It's about pride. About...about lions and their prides. But what you just said...you have pride in yourself, in who you are. No shame in your mental abilities. No shame in your queerness. I wish I had any kind of pride remotely close to what you have. It's inspirational, admirable."
Sophie looked at Robin, who ran her other hand up to Sophie's face and wiped at her eyes, then ran her thumb over her lips.
"So if today is about pride," Robin continued, "maybe we should be proud. Not hiding away. This lion tamer I talked to today told me that if she hadn't taken the chance to see what doing the career she had now was like, she would always be wondering. That's how I feel about what we have. It was scary, but it's been so worth it. The most worth it of anything in my life. So I'm gonna take pride in being brave enough to take that risk, to walk away from the heternormaitve path and, instead, embrace something else. Embrace you. Cause god are you worth it. What do you say? What do you say we try having pride instead of shame?"
Sophie nodded weakly and leaned against Robin, pushing her head under her chin. Robin smiled and gently held her close, stroking her hair as the rain fell on the plastic and metal playthings around them.
"I'm glad you're in my pride," Sophie whispered, and Robin chuckled.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," Robin replied, kissing her on the head.
Robin Glass had attempted to be an actress. She was still trying to do that, best she could. But if she'd followed that path, she wouldn't have met Sophie Hart, she wouldn't be at Wild Kingdom. Sometimes, as Maria had put it, the best things in life aren't the things you plan for at all. Robin hadn't planned to come work here, and she sure as hell hadn't planned to meet Sophie and fall in love. But it definitely was the best thing in life, now.
And she took pride in that fact.
Pride Week was yet another event that was framed to get more than the usual number of guests to come visit, much like Birdapalooza, and this one was even more popular to be honest, because, well, kids love giant cats. Pride Week saw lion tamers come in from the local circus and do very basic and very safe tricks with the lions. Simple "jump through hoop" type tricks. Nothing that would irritate, aggravate or in any way harm the lions. As a result, this wound up being one of the most popular events of the year, and Nelly had to miss it, sitting in her office, doing paperwork. The door opened and she looked up, only to see Harvey slink on in. She smiled, pulled her glasses from her face and hung them around her neck.
"How can I help you today sir?" she asked.
"I have two deliveries for you," Harvey said, approaching the desk, and, with one palm placed firmly on the topside, leaned across to kiss her, then added, "that was the first, now here's the second."
He pulled his other arm out from behind his back and handed her a stuffed Alligator. Nelly took it and giggled. She leaned back in her chair and after a few moments of appreciating it, looked back up at Harvey, who'd now seated himself on the corner of the desk.
"Well this is cute, nobody has given me a plush as a present since elementary school Valentine's day," Nelly said.
"His name is Mr. Chomps," Harvey said, "I won him in a machine. Figured, ya know, he'd like it here more, at the zoo."
Nelly played with Mr. Chomps momentarily in her hands before hugging him to her chest and looking back up at Harvey, who was just smiling gently down at her.
"You're really cute, do you know that?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No, I don't, you should tell me more," she said, grinning.
Seemed like everywhere around the zoo, love was in the air.
***
"That was incredible," Robin said.
One of the performers who'd worked with the lions that day, an older woman named Maria, was sitting out during her break, as Robin sat along with her. Robin had no tours scheduled for the day - nobody did in fact - considering it was an event day, and so she spent most of her early afternoon simply watching the lion tamers work with the animals in front of crowds.
"How did you even get into this line of work?" Casper asked, sitting alongside Robin.
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware," Maria said, taking a long drink from a bottle of water, "it isn't exactly the kind of thing you often just plan to wind up in. Nobody goes to school for lion taming. It's a little...off the beaten path, you know? Technically, my job falls under the title of 'animal trainer', not just lion tamer, because you've got to be proficient in a handful of areas. Originally I was gonna be a veterinarian, cause I always had interest in animals, but then once I got into college I had this boyfriend who took me to a circus cause he had a cousin who was in it. Seeing her perform with big animals, that was all it took, man. I changed my entire career path that afternoon."
"Aren't you scared?" Casper asked.
"Of course I'm scared, it's a giant fucking cat that could tear my throat open with ease," Maria replied, laughing, "but, you know, you do what you do with confidence and hope for the best. Besides if you're properly trained - I mean I'm not saying accidents don't happen even with training but still - then you're much less likely to have that sort of accident."
"Hey nerds, what're we talking about?" Fletcher asked, taking a seat at the table, eating a churro and, surprising to everyone else, handing them their own as well.
"Lion taming," Robin said, biting into her treat.
"That's pretty cool," Fletcher said between chews.
"What's more dangerous in your opinion," Kyle asked, "lions or tigers?"
"Or bears? Oh my!" Fletcher said, making them laugh.
"Frankly," Maria said, taking another long swig of water before capping it shut, "I would say Tigers. Lions, I think are more powerful, but a lion really is just a giant cat. A tiger is a totally different breed of animal. I mean, sure, it's a giant cat too, but it isn't the same. You see plenty of wildlife photographers taking photos of themselves lounging with lions in the Savannah, you only ever see people interact with tigers during Vegas magic shows. The two are not the same."
Robin looked around at the people milling about, enjoying the event, and wondered where Sophie was. She said she'd join her when she was done with her janitorial shift - during events they always hired extra help for the day so she wasn't the sole one keeping the zoo clean - and yet here it was, early afternoon now, and she hadn't shown up. Robin took another bite of churro and, as she chewed, she just hoped everything was alright. Things between them were crystal clear now, emotionally, so she had no real reason to worry.
And yet, by the end of the day, she would be.
***
Harvey and Nelly had gone for a walk through the zoo, Mr. Chomps tucked tightly beneath Nelly's arm, as they each ate their own stick of cotton candy that was colored like lions. Harvey, after finishing half of his, held the stick away from his face and grimaced.
"I don't like the color of this," he lamented, "it makes me feel as though I'm eating pee in physical form."
"Ew, come on, I'm trying to enjoy this," Nelly said, laughing.
"I'm just sayin'," Harvey responded, shrugging, "fluffy pee treat."
They continued walking aways until they each finished, tossing the sticks into a nearby garbage can, then leaning against a small rail looking into a pen full of lion cubs and mothers. They were all laying around, being groomed by their respective parents, and Nelly smiled, hugging Mr. Chomps to closely to her chest.
"I keep thinking I'd like children one day," she said, "but, god, with the job being the way it is...would I even have the time to be a mother, you know? The animals are my children. I mean, ya know, not really cause giving birth to a giraffe as a human would probably kill me-"
"Not to mention raise a whole lotta questions about the depth of your-"
"-but still," Nelly continued, interrupting, holding back laughter, "you know what I mean. This zoo is what I care about. It's my child. It's what I worked my whole life to achieve, you know? I'm so happy to be in charge, and the last thing I wanna do is screw it up, much like a child, actually. I just worry that I wouldn't be capable of giving a kid the kind of attention it deserves. But god it would be nice."
"I imagine what it would be like to have kids sometimes," Harvey said, "but I totally get where you're coming from. It's a lifelong endeavor, and one that you're scared to do wrong. I guess it's okay to substitute stuff in the place of having a family, but...having a family, a proper family...there's something really nice about that. Knowing that, at the end of the day, you have something to come home to that loves you, that you work to protect and nurture. I like that."
Nelly blushed. Harvey wasn't like the other men she'd been interested in or involved with. In fact, that was mostly what she liked about him. She could tell her cared about things like family and love. That he held her interests close to his heart. She'd never felt so...claimed.
"I just wouldn't wanna do it wrong is all," Nelly said.
"You never could," Harvey said, "even if you tried to, I promise you never could."
"Hey," Nelly said, grinning, "how about we go into the butterfly hutch and make out?"
Harvey laughed as she took his hand and led him up towards the building. In so many ways, he made Nelly feel like a teenager again, and she loved it. As the doors to the Hutch closed behind them and Nelly locked them within it, all she could think of was how Mr. Chomps didn't need to see the adult acts that were about to go down amongst all these beautiful butterflies. He was simply much too innocent for that.
***
Fletcher and Casper had each gone their own ways, leaving just Robin now sitting with Maria as Maria prepared for her next show. As she stuffed things back into her backpack and got her costume back together, Robin bit her lip and finally spoke again.
"Do you ever regret not doing what you initially set out to do?" Robin asked, "like...say you had gone to veterinarian school, right, and gone on to work in the medical field helping animals instead of this. Would you feel fulfilled or would you feel like you'd missed out?"
"Well, I don't know that I'd feel like I'd missed out because unless I partook in it firsthand I wouldn't know what it is I'm missing to begin with, right?" Maria asked, putting her baton on the table and turning to face Robin, hand on her hip, "but I'd always wonder. That's the killer, I think. The things you don't do you always wonder for the rest of your life what it'd have been like if you had done them. And besides, if you can so easily be swayed by something different, then you weren't really all that attached to the original thing in the first place, were you?"
This statement was what Robin needed to hear. The last few months, working at Wild Kingdom, her blossoming relationship with Sophie and hiding it from Kyle...she'd had this twinge of guilt, as she rightfully should. She was, in essence, having an affair. But hearing someone tell her that, in the end, it was because she wasn't happy to start out with...well, that alleviated a good chunk of her guilt.
"And besides," Maria said, continuing, "the risk is worth the reward, I would say. It sure was for me. In a way, I'm still helping animals, because I know there's worse trainers out there, and I know I do it with a gentleness they wouldn't bring to the job, so in a way, I'm protecting them."
Robin nodded absentmindedly. Again, her thoughts turned to Sophie. Sophie had told her about how everyone she'd ever tried to be with had hurt her or rejected her, and Robin knew she would never do that. Robin knew she would only ever treat her the best that she could. Robin stood up from the table and pulled on her jacket over her uniform.
"It was really nice talking with you," Robin said, pulling her hair out from under her jacket, "and good luck with your next show, but I really have to go do something."
With that, Robin climbed into the nearby cart and started driving away. She really had to find Sophie.
***
Harvey and Nelly were laying on the floor of the Hutch, both breathing heavily, both nude. The Hutch had drop down shades, so nobody could see inside, and the entrances were locked, so nobody could walk in. Nelly ran a hand through her hair and sighed, grinning widely as Harvey coughed a few times. Nelly rolled her head to face him, and he did the same, smiling back at her.
"Who knew you were such a girly girl, wanting to fuck in a butterfly hutch," Harvey said.
"I'm allowed to be girly," Nelly said in response, giggling, "it's just a nice space. It's quiet and, most importantly, it's capable of being locked off and blocked off. Between the door locks and the shutters, we're completely alone in here. That's more than I can say for most exhibits around here."
Nelly rolled onto her side and looked at Harvey, who just kept looking back at her, smiling.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," she said quietly, "I'm just happy to be here with you. Doing this. Really, it's...it's all I've wanted for a very long time. I'm just...happy. I'm happy, and I don't...I don't really know how to feel that or to trust it. How do you trust it when you've been so unhappy for so long?"
"You just gotta," Harvey said, shrugging, "you just gotta give in, know that it's worth it, worth the risk. I know how you feel. It's taken me a long time to trust the happiness too, cause for so long I was convinced I didn't deserve it. But that's what you have to allow yourself to believe. It's selfish, but there's nothing wrong with that if it's for your well being. There's differences between positive and negative selfishness. Happiness is not on the negative spectrum."
Nelly nodded and rolled back onto her back, looking up at the butterflies fluttering away overhead. Did she deserve it? So many people had told her she didn't that she'd internalized that belief herself now. She chewed on her lip and thought about her last relationship. How much he'd taken from her. How much he'd belitted her. How much he'd made her think so lowly of herself. But she'd worked hard to get to where she was now, and she was proud of being the one in charge of Wild Kingdom, and she was happy being here with Harvey. Suddenly he rolled over, pinning her down a bit, making her laugh in surprise as he looked down at her face and gently brushing some hair from her face.
"It's beautiful in here," Harvey said, "but I think I'd rather look at you than butterflies."
With that, he leaned in and kissed her, then kissed down her jaw to her neck and to the crook of her shoulder. Nelly let herself go, just enjoying the moment as it started to rain outside, the water hitting the glass of the Hutch. He was right. Sometimes it was right to be selfish.
She was gonna try that someday.
***
Robin pulled over her cart near The Lions Den - a small playground area filled with lion themed equipment - and parked. She looked around until she spotted someone sitting underneath the slide, wearing a yellow rain slicker. Robin climbed out from the cart and, zipping her jacket up and tugging the hood on over her head, began walking towards them. As she reached the space, she sat on the end of a seesaw beside the slide and just waited, but the figure didn't move. That was when she could hear them crying. Sophie reached out and put her hand on their knee, causing them to finally look up.
"What are you doing out here?" Robin asked, "especially now that it's raining?"
"Where else would I be?" Sophie asked, wiping her face on her slicker sleeve, "this is where I belong, right?"
"What?" Robin asked, confused.
"...this morning, I overheard my parents talking...talking about me," Sophie said, "about my sister. My father said that they really got screwed cause one didn't get to grow up physically, and the other didn't get to grow up mentally, and as a result, they just had two failed children. It isn't my sisters fault she died, and it isn't my fault I'm stunted."
"You're not-"
"I am, but there's nothing wrong with that," Sophie said, interrupting, "I have no shame in it. So I figured, well, if everyone sees me as a child, then maybe I should only exist in childish spaces. I came here after my shift and I've just been hiding here ever since. I didn't think you'd come looking for me since it's an event day. I figured you'd just, ya know, have fun."
"Can't have fun without you around, you know that," Robin said, smiling as she shifted from the seesaw down to the underside of the slide, putting an arm around Sophie; Robin sighed and said, "you know, this event? It's about pride. About...about lions and their prides. But what you just said...you have pride in yourself, in who you are. No shame in your mental abilities. No shame in your queerness. I wish I had any kind of pride remotely close to what you have. It's inspirational, admirable."
Sophie looked at Robin, who ran her other hand up to Sophie's face and wiped at her eyes, then ran her thumb over her lips.
"So if today is about pride," Robin continued, "maybe we should be proud. Not hiding away. This lion tamer I talked to today told me that if she hadn't taken the chance to see what doing the career she had now was like, she would always be wondering. That's how I feel about what we have. It was scary, but it's been so worth it. The most worth it of anything in my life. So I'm gonna take pride in being brave enough to take that risk, to walk away from the heternormaitve path and, instead, embrace something else. Embrace you. Cause god are you worth it. What do you say? What do you say we try having pride instead of shame?"
Sophie nodded weakly and leaned against Robin, pushing her head under her chin. Robin smiled and gently held her close, stroking her hair as the rain fell on the plastic and metal playthings around them.
"I'm glad you're in my pride," Sophie whispered, and Robin chuckled.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," Robin replied, kissing her on the head.
Robin Glass had attempted to be an actress. She was still trying to do that, best she could. But if she'd followed that path, she wouldn't have met Sophie Hart, she wouldn't be at Wild Kingdom. Sometimes, as Maria had put it, the best things in life aren't the things you plan for at all. Robin hadn't planned to come work here, and she sure as hell hadn't planned to meet Sophie and fall in love. But it definitely was the best thing in life, now.
And she took pride in that fact.