"I used to think, I don't know...I used to think that maybe I would get lucky, you know? Get 'discovered' or whatever bullshit actors feed themselves," Robin said, leaning over the railing that surrounded the entrance to the Splash Zone, Catfish beside her, for once not in her work attire wetsuit, but just in casual clothes - a vneck tshirt and shorts with hiking boots - both of them drinking from glass bottle sodas. Robin burped, wiped her mouth on her arm and continued, "but the thing is, you can have all the talent in the world, and still not get discovered. Think about how many great acting talents the world has lost out on simply because one girl wasn't 2 lbs lower than the preferred weight or because some guy had a receding hairline. Now I'm not saying I'm the most gorgeous girl in the world, lord knows I'm up there but I'm not number one, but I'm fairly conventionally attractive AND talented and still...nothing, and yet..."
Catfish glanced over as she took a sip, raising her eyebrow as she awaited the remainder of Robins speech.
"And yet," Robin added, "I can't help but be kinda grateful. Standing here, day in, day out, watching Kazoo perform...I can't help but feel, I don't know, like I dodged a bullet. What starts as a hobby becomes a passion becomes a product and soon you're burnt out and the magic is gone because you still live paycheck to paycheck unless you get mega stardom, and you can only really take projects you don't like because they pay well and not projects you're genuinely interested in because that would take time away from the ones that pay well. Performance is a prison. And yet here I am, same as everyone else who works here, performing, but at least...I don't know...at least now it means something, you know?"
Robin let out a long exhale and took a long drink, then glanced at Catfish who was staring at her.
"What?" Robin asked.
"Well, I'm surprised you didn't make it as an actress, considering you've got monologing down pat," Catfish said, making Robin laugh.
Just then they heard a cart pull up behind them and turned to spot Harvey pulling up in his cart. The girls stood and stared at him as he motioned for them to get into the cart.
"What's going on?" Robin asked.
"Fletcher and Doug have a bet, you're not gonna wanna miss this," Harvey said.
At least the zoo was never boring, Robin had to admit.
***
"Alright men, this is the deal," Kacie said, standing at an enclosure usually filled with monkeys, as Fletcher and Douglas, both in jumpsuits, stood in front of her with batches of cleaning supplies beside them; she continued, "both of you are going to go into this enclosure, and you're going to see who can clean up their section the fastest, preferably without getting sick."
"What even happened here?" Robin asked, leaning towards Harvey.
"Batch of food monkeys were given was contaminated, and they all got sick, you know, with the runs, and, uh, the place got absolutely splattered as a result."
"Why does everything around here have to do with bodily fluids?" Robin asked, "the peacock in Nelly's car, the whale vomit in the arena, and now this. This place is disgusting."
"It's a zoo, Robin," Harvey replied, chuckling.
Truth be told, neither Douglas nor Fletcher looked much too pleased about this bet, which begged the question of who was the one who brought it up and why? Robin had questions, and she needed answers.
"What do you get if you win?" Robin finally asked loudly enough for them to answer.
"Valor?" Catfish asked.
"Better not be fucking valor," Douglas said, already sounding defeated.
"Can't be pride, I've got plenty of that," Fletcher said, winking and making finger guns at Robin, making her laugh.
"Can't have too much if you're cleaning up a mess of monkey shit," Kacie said, "whoever loses the bet has to clean up the rest of the enclosure. Whoever wins gets that entire day off. I've already cleared this with Nelly, who, surprisingly, was all for it, probably just to humiliate you guys."
"She does take a perverse pleasure in that," Fletcher grumbled.
Robin grimaced at this verbal exchange, as she knew a thing or two about humiliation.
***
"I want to be an actress," Robin said.
"Yeah? You think that would be fun?" her father asked.
Robin was 12. They were sitting at an ice cream parlor, one that hadn't changed since her father was a child, eating their weekly Sunday morning ice cream. This was a tradition for the two, and had been ever since Robin could remember forming memories.
"It's not about it being fun," she said, "but it would be fun, yeah, but it's about telling stories. I wanna tell stories."
"Well, being an actor isn't telling a story, it's acting out a story. Telling a story would make you a writer."
Robin hadn't considered this. Maybe her father was right. And so Robin, in addition to trying to act, also started taking up writing in her spare time. Instead of hanging out with other girls, or chasing boys, or even spending her time alone pursuing hobbies those her age would prefer to pursue, she was in her bedroom, at her computer, typing away. She never showed anyone anything she wrote, and a lot of times she barely managed to even finish anything, but she typed and typed and typed. But the thing was...she didn't enjoy writing as much as she enjoyed performing, and she never really believed what her father had told her anyway.
Ironically, however, and much to her own surprise, she was acting all the time anyway. Acting happy when she was depressed as a teenager. Acting strictly heterosexual when deep down, albeit unknown to her at the time, she liked women too. Robin Glass was never an actress just in profession alone, but in life itself, always seeking out ways to ensure that those around her never knew the real her. Not even people like Kyle, whom she cared for very much, got to know her on that level. He got glimpses, but never the full view. Nobody did. Until Sophie. Until the people here at Wild Kingdom. And watching Kazoo, someone else forced to be performative, to put on a show against their will, Robin started to understand just how detrimental to oneself that can be when the desire to do so isn't genuine.
Acting should be a skill, but not one you learn for the sake of survival.
***
"You ever feel bad for Kazoo?" Robin asked, standing and watching Fletcher do his best to get smeared monkey shit off the glass wall enclosure. Catfish shrugged at the question.
"I mean, I know that captivity is frowned upon, and I know that animals being forced to perform is frowned upon, and that one's at least justifiable on some levels. That's why the circus stopped using elephants and stuff. But I mean...Kazoo isn't treated poorly. They're taken care of, fed well, cleaned, they have a whole medical team watching over them."
"Yeah but...but wouldn't it be better for them to be in their natural habitat instead of such a fake place such as this?" Robin asked, and Fletcher laughed, causing them both to look his way as he dipped his scrub brush back into his sudsy bucket.
"We're all in captivity, Robin, in every walk of life," he said, "people working jobs they don't wanna work, people stuck in marriages they don't wanna be in, life itself is a form of captivity, and the only freedom is death."
Catfish and Robin exchanged a concerned look before glancing back in Fletcher's direction.
"Are you okay?" Robin asked.
"I'm hand washing monkey shit, what do you think?" Fletcher replied dryly.
"So," Catfish said, returning to Robin's question, "you're asking me whether I think Kazoo would be better off in the ocean? I mean...generations upon generations have given the whale natural survival instincts, inclinations of how to successfully navigate that world, so I suppose, but...I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm just a trainer. Sure I'm obsessed with whales, but that doesn't mean I have the right answer to whether or not they should be here or there."
Robin sighed. Was she projecting her problems onto Kazoo? Was that all this was? Or did she actually feel sympathetic towards the creature for being forced into this life? It wasn't that she had a problem with the Splash Zone being in Wild Kingdom. In fact, she liked it, and Catfish herself had slotted into their friend group perfectly fine. It was hard to know what exactly she was feeling.
"I have to go train a new person today," Catfish said, checking her watch, "I'll see you guys later. Have a good day!"
"Too late," both Fletcher and Robin said simultaneously, which made them grin at one another. Robin then turned her full attention to Fletcher.
"So," she asked, "how did this bet come about?"
"...I bet Doug that he couldn't get a parrot to say a swear word," Fletcher said, "Turns out he not only managed to do so, but, uh, now it won't say anything but that and has had to be quarantined to a less family friendly place. Once Nelly found out, she had us do this, so now we're having this bet. It's stupid little petty games like this that make working here tolerable."
"You don't like your job?" Robin asked, sounding surprised. Fletcher shrugged.
"I don't mind it," he said, "I like it well enough. I mean, you know, I didn't mean to end up here, just like you."
"I know," Robin said, exhaling, tossing her hair from her face, "I was thinking about that today. About how I relate to Kazoo for being a performer. Is that sad? To emotionally relate to a whale?"
"Not really, I emotionally relate to your mom," Fletcher said, grinning, making Robin cackle. Though she was laughing, Robin did have to wonder just how many people here at Wild Kingdom were here because they wanted to be, and how many were here because they couldn't go anyplace else. She always thought you had to be a qualified animal trainer or something to work at a zoo, but as it turns out, to be a 'guide', the way she and her coworkers were, you didn't have to have those sorts of qualifications. So she was very curious about what their origins were. She knew why Fletcher was here, she knew Nelly had worked hard to get where she was and loved her job, but what about everyone else?
What about Sophie?
***
Sophie was sitting on a marble bench in the graveyard, away from her family, away from the ceremonial act of her sisters burial. She was staring at the grass waving gently in the wind by her feet, when she felt the bench shift, and looked to her side to see her Aunt Carrie had sat down as well. Neither one acknowledged the other, and it seemed like Aunt Carrie had only really come over here to give Sophie company without the expectation of a response, which Sophie appreciated. Silent company was golden. However, after a while, Sophie herself cleared her throat and found herself initiating conversation.
"Do you think they love me as much as they loved her?" she asked.
"I used to wonder the same thing about your mother and I," Aunt Carrie said, "ultimately, what I came to realize, is that you're wasting your time vying for affection from those who are incapable of showing it."
"What do you do then? Love yourself? I don't think I can do that," Sophie said, "I can't be her. I can't be myself. Who can I be?"
"If you can't be either one, why not be someone totally new? Create an entirely new persona?" Aunt Carrie asked, shrugging, "that's what I did. I didn't like who I was, and I couldn't be your mother, the golden child, so I became someone else. People grow and change throughout life as it is, so how's this any different? One should be natural, and this is artificial? Bah. Humanity itself is artificial. We're all just actors, Sophie. Most just chose to do improv."
Sophie had never really considered this. She'd never really considered simply being someone else. But maybe her Aunt Carrie was right, and this was the way forward. So, come the years after, she decided to change everything she could about herself. She decided to create a persona that her parents would like, that would even help her get a job, which it did, at Wild Kingdom, and in the end, she used that very same persona to entice Robin to like her. And then Robin liked her too much, and knocked down all the wals around her, and made Sophie want to be herself again.
And that...that was something she was terrified of showing, even to the woman she loved.
***
Robin didn't stick around to see what happened with the bet. Stuff like this happened at Wild Kingdom every day, so it was just background noise anyhow. As she walked to the parking lot, preparing to go home, she saw Catfish standing by a scooter, swearing to herself. Robin approached, concerned, only to have Catfish turn around at the last minute and the both of them scream a little, laughing at the others sudden appearance.
"Bad day?" Robin asked.
"I mean, at least I wasn't cleaning up monkey feces," Catfish said, unbuckling the strap to her helmet, "but yeah it...it wasn't good. The longer I work with Kazoo, the more I work with other trainers, the more I start to realize just how not okay what we're doing is. Kazoo seems unhappy. I know it's hard to tell whether a whale is happy or not, but...sometimes I think about just somehow stealing them and releasing them back into the ocean, you know?"
"Whale heist, awesome," Robin said, nodding.
"Anyway," Catfish continued, tugging her helmet on and latching it, before climbing onto her scooter, "that's just the guilt pangs one gets I suppose for loving animals too much. See ya tomorrow."
And with that, she rode off into the road and down the street. Robin then turned and headed back to her car, where she found Sophie standing opposite passenger side. Neither one had seen eachother all day, and Sophie looked...concerned.
"Hi," Robin said brightly, smiling.
"Can I come home with you?" Sophie asked, taking Robin by total surprise.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"I need to come home with you," Sophie said, "please."
How could Robin say no to that face, that voice. She unlocked the car, and both women climbed inside. Robin started the car up and drove back to the apartment. Once inside, Sophie looked around, as if taking in the place in a weird curiosity, and that's when it dawned on Robin. Humans were just zoo animals. Everyone had their enclosure, their enrichment, some had their mates, and when others came around, they gawked awkwardly at the way these creatures lived. Robin went to the kitchen and got a drink from the fridge, but then, as she shut the fridge and turned back around, she was surprised to find Sophie standing right in front of her.
"Whoa, hi there," Robin said, chuckling.
"You don't know me," Sophie said, "you don't know me at all. You just know the me that I let others know. I want you to know me. Actual me. Not this fake version of me. I want you to know the things I actually like, like puzzles and bird watching and pastel painting and how...how much you make me want to be myself."
Robin felt her breath catch in her chest, their eyes locked. Sophie had never, not once, been this forward. She was totally caught off guard. Except for their initial kiss in the butterfly hutch, Sophie had always been fairly reserved, and Robin had been the one to be rather upfront, but today everything seemed topsy turvy.
"Well, I...I love you no matter who you are or what you wanna be or what things you like," Robin said, smiling nervously as Sophie backed her against the fridge, "you know that, you know nothing can change that."
"I'm challenged, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not my sister," Sophie said, "and I'm tired of pretending to be, and I'm tired of pretending to be the person I created to not be her, and I'm tired of having nobody in my life know me. I want you to know me."
Robin nodded, exhaling.
"I...I know how you feel," she said, "I really do."
"I'm crazy in love with you," Sophie said, taking Robin even more by surprise, as, again, Sophie was rarely this vocal about her romantic feelings, adding, "and...I'm tired of pretending I'm not or that that's something shameful that has to be hidden as well."
Robin pulled Sophie's face to hers and kissed her, and for one brief moment everything in the world was right. And then the door to the apartment opened, and Kyle - who was supposed to have been working late - was standing in the living room staring at the girls as Robins eyes connected with his over Sophies shoulders and time itself felt like it stopped. The enrichment was over.
The zookeeper was home.
Catfish glanced over as she took a sip, raising her eyebrow as she awaited the remainder of Robins speech.
"And yet," Robin added, "I can't help but be kinda grateful. Standing here, day in, day out, watching Kazoo perform...I can't help but feel, I don't know, like I dodged a bullet. What starts as a hobby becomes a passion becomes a product and soon you're burnt out and the magic is gone because you still live paycheck to paycheck unless you get mega stardom, and you can only really take projects you don't like because they pay well and not projects you're genuinely interested in because that would take time away from the ones that pay well. Performance is a prison. And yet here I am, same as everyone else who works here, performing, but at least...I don't know...at least now it means something, you know?"
Robin let out a long exhale and took a long drink, then glanced at Catfish who was staring at her.
"What?" Robin asked.
"Well, I'm surprised you didn't make it as an actress, considering you've got monologing down pat," Catfish said, making Robin laugh.
Just then they heard a cart pull up behind them and turned to spot Harvey pulling up in his cart. The girls stood and stared at him as he motioned for them to get into the cart.
"What's going on?" Robin asked.
"Fletcher and Doug have a bet, you're not gonna wanna miss this," Harvey said.
At least the zoo was never boring, Robin had to admit.
***
"Alright men, this is the deal," Kacie said, standing at an enclosure usually filled with monkeys, as Fletcher and Douglas, both in jumpsuits, stood in front of her with batches of cleaning supplies beside them; she continued, "both of you are going to go into this enclosure, and you're going to see who can clean up their section the fastest, preferably without getting sick."
"What even happened here?" Robin asked, leaning towards Harvey.
"Batch of food monkeys were given was contaminated, and they all got sick, you know, with the runs, and, uh, the place got absolutely splattered as a result."
"Why does everything around here have to do with bodily fluids?" Robin asked, "the peacock in Nelly's car, the whale vomit in the arena, and now this. This place is disgusting."
"It's a zoo, Robin," Harvey replied, chuckling.
Truth be told, neither Douglas nor Fletcher looked much too pleased about this bet, which begged the question of who was the one who brought it up and why? Robin had questions, and she needed answers.
"What do you get if you win?" Robin finally asked loudly enough for them to answer.
"Valor?" Catfish asked.
"Better not be fucking valor," Douglas said, already sounding defeated.
"Can't be pride, I've got plenty of that," Fletcher said, winking and making finger guns at Robin, making her laugh.
"Can't have too much if you're cleaning up a mess of monkey shit," Kacie said, "whoever loses the bet has to clean up the rest of the enclosure. Whoever wins gets that entire day off. I've already cleared this with Nelly, who, surprisingly, was all for it, probably just to humiliate you guys."
"She does take a perverse pleasure in that," Fletcher grumbled.
Robin grimaced at this verbal exchange, as she knew a thing or two about humiliation.
***
"I want to be an actress," Robin said.
"Yeah? You think that would be fun?" her father asked.
Robin was 12. They were sitting at an ice cream parlor, one that hadn't changed since her father was a child, eating their weekly Sunday morning ice cream. This was a tradition for the two, and had been ever since Robin could remember forming memories.
"It's not about it being fun," she said, "but it would be fun, yeah, but it's about telling stories. I wanna tell stories."
"Well, being an actor isn't telling a story, it's acting out a story. Telling a story would make you a writer."
Robin hadn't considered this. Maybe her father was right. And so Robin, in addition to trying to act, also started taking up writing in her spare time. Instead of hanging out with other girls, or chasing boys, or even spending her time alone pursuing hobbies those her age would prefer to pursue, she was in her bedroom, at her computer, typing away. She never showed anyone anything she wrote, and a lot of times she barely managed to even finish anything, but she typed and typed and typed. But the thing was...she didn't enjoy writing as much as she enjoyed performing, and she never really believed what her father had told her anyway.
Ironically, however, and much to her own surprise, she was acting all the time anyway. Acting happy when she was depressed as a teenager. Acting strictly heterosexual when deep down, albeit unknown to her at the time, she liked women too. Robin Glass was never an actress just in profession alone, but in life itself, always seeking out ways to ensure that those around her never knew the real her. Not even people like Kyle, whom she cared for very much, got to know her on that level. He got glimpses, but never the full view. Nobody did. Until Sophie. Until the people here at Wild Kingdom. And watching Kazoo, someone else forced to be performative, to put on a show against their will, Robin started to understand just how detrimental to oneself that can be when the desire to do so isn't genuine.
Acting should be a skill, but not one you learn for the sake of survival.
***
"You ever feel bad for Kazoo?" Robin asked, standing and watching Fletcher do his best to get smeared monkey shit off the glass wall enclosure. Catfish shrugged at the question.
"I mean, I know that captivity is frowned upon, and I know that animals being forced to perform is frowned upon, and that one's at least justifiable on some levels. That's why the circus stopped using elephants and stuff. But I mean...Kazoo isn't treated poorly. They're taken care of, fed well, cleaned, they have a whole medical team watching over them."
"Yeah but...but wouldn't it be better for them to be in their natural habitat instead of such a fake place such as this?" Robin asked, and Fletcher laughed, causing them both to look his way as he dipped his scrub brush back into his sudsy bucket.
"We're all in captivity, Robin, in every walk of life," he said, "people working jobs they don't wanna work, people stuck in marriages they don't wanna be in, life itself is a form of captivity, and the only freedom is death."
Catfish and Robin exchanged a concerned look before glancing back in Fletcher's direction.
"Are you okay?" Robin asked.
"I'm hand washing monkey shit, what do you think?" Fletcher replied dryly.
"So," Catfish said, returning to Robin's question, "you're asking me whether I think Kazoo would be better off in the ocean? I mean...generations upon generations have given the whale natural survival instincts, inclinations of how to successfully navigate that world, so I suppose, but...I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm just a trainer. Sure I'm obsessed with whales, but that doesn't mean I have the right answer to whether or not they should be here or there."
Robin sighed. Was she projecting her problems onto Kazoo? Was that all this was? Or did she actually feel sympathetic towards the creature for being forced into this life? It wasn't that she had a problem with the Splash Zone being in Wild Kingdom. In fact, she liked it, and Catfish herself had slotted into their friend group perfectly fine. It was hard to know what exactly she was feeling.
"I have to go train a new person today," Catfish said, checking her watch, "I'll see you guys later. Have a good day!"
"Too late," both Fletcher and Robin said simultaneously, which made them grin at one another. Robin then turned her full attention to Fletcher.
"So," she asked, "how did this bet come about?"
"...I bet Doug that he couldn't get a parrot to say a swear word," Fletcher said, "Turns out he not only managed to do so, but, uh, now it won't say anything but that and has had to be quarantined to a less family friendly place. Once Nelly found out, she had us do this, so now we're having this bet. It's stupid little petty games like this that make working here tolerable."
"You don't like your job?" Robin asked, sounding surprised. Fletcher shrugged.
"I don't mind it," he said, "I like it well enough. I mean, you know, I didn't mean to end up here, just like you."
"I know," Robin said, exhaling, tossing her hair from her face, "I was thinking about that today. About how I relate to Kazoo for being a performer. Is that sad? To emotionally relate to a whale?"
"Not really, I emotionally relate to your mom," Fletcher said, grinning, making Robin cackle. Though she was laughing, Robin did have to wonder just how many people here at Wild Kingdom were here because they wanted to be, and how many were here because they couldn't go anyplace else. She always thought you had to be a qualified animal trainer or something to work at a zoo, but as it turns out, to be a 'guide', the way she and her coworkers were, you didn't have to have those sorts of qualifications. So she was very curious about what their origins were. She knew why Fletcher was here, she knew Nelly had worked hard to get where she was and loved her job, but what about everyone else?
What about Sophie?
***
Sophie was sitting on a marble bench in the graveyard, away from her family, away from the ceremonial act of her sisters burial. She was staring at the grass waving gently in the wind by her feet, when she felt the bench shift, and looked to her side to see her Aunt Carrie had sat down as well. Neither one acknowledged the other, and it seemed like Aunt Carrie had only really come over here to give Sophie company without the expectation of a response, which Sophie appreciated. Silent company was golden. However, after a while, Sophie herself cleared her throat and found herself initiating conversation.
"Do you think they love me as much as they loved her?" she asked.
"I used to wonder the same thing about your mother and I," Aunt Carrie said, "ultimately, what I came to realize, is that you're wasting your time vying for affection from those who are incapable of showing it."
"What do you do then? Love yourself? I don't think I can do that," Sophie said, "I can't be her. I can't be myself. Who can I be?"
"If you can't be either one, why not be someone totally new? Create an entirely new persona?" Aunt Carrie asked, shrugging, "that's what I did. I didn't like who I was, and I couldn't be your mother, the golden child, so I became someone else. People grow and change throughout life as it is, so how's this any different? One should be natural, and this is artificial? Bah. Humanity itself is artificial. We're all just actors, Sophie. Most just chose to do improv."
Sophie had never really considered this. She'd never really considered simply being someone else. But maybe her Aunt Carrie was right, and this was the way forward. So, come the years after, she decided to change everything she could about herself. She decided to create a persona that her parents would like, that would even help her get a job, which it did, at Wild Kingdom, and in the end, she used that very same persona to entice Robin to like her. And then Robin liked her too much, and knocked down all the wals around her, and made Sophie want to be herself again.
And that...that was something she was terrified of showing, even to the woman she loved.
***
Robin didn't stick around to see what happened with the bet. Stuff like this happened at Wild Kingdom every day, so it was just background noise anyhow. As she walked to the parking lot, preparing to go home, she saw Catfish standing by a scooter, swearing to herself. Robin approached, concerned, only to have Catfish turn around at the last minute and the both of them scream a little, laughing at the others sudden appearance.
"Bad day?" Robin asked.
"I mean, at least I wasn't cleaning up monkey feces," Catfish said, unbuckling the strap to her helmet, "but yeah it...it wasn't good. The longer I work with Kazoo, the more I work with other trainers, the more I start to realize just how not okay what we're doing is. Kazoo seems unhappy. I know it's hard to tell whether a whale is happy or not, but...sometimes I think about just somehow stealing them and releasing them back into the ocean, you know?"
"Whale heist, awesome," Robin said, nodding.
"Anyway," Catfish continued, tugging her helmet on and latching it, before climbing onto her scooter, "that's just the guilt pangs one gets I suppose for loving animals too much. See ya tomorrow."
And with that, she rode off into the road and down the street. Robin then turned and headed back to her car, where she found Sophie standing opposite passenger side. Neither one had seen eachother all day, and Sophie looked...concerned.
"Hi," Robin said brightly, smiling.
"Can I come home with you?" Sophie asked, taking Robin by total surprise.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"I need to come home with you," Sophie said, "please."
How could Robin say no to that face, that voice. She unlocked the car, and both women climbed inside. Robin started the car up and drove back to the apartment. Once inside, Sophie looked around, as if taking in the place in a weird curiosity, and that's when it dawned on Robin. Humans were just zoo animals. Everyone had their enclosure, their enrichment, some had their mates, and when others came around, they gawked awkwardly at the way these creatures lived. Robin went to the kitchen and got a drink from the fridge, but then, as she shut the fridge and turned back around, she was surprised to find Sophie standing right in front of her.
"Whoa, hi there," Robin said, chuckling.
"You don't know me," Sophie said, "you don't know me at all. You just know the me that I let others know. I want you to know me. Actual me. Not this fake version of me. I want you to know the things I actually like, like puzzles and bird watching and pastel painting and how...how much you make me want to be myself."
Robin felt her breath catch in her chest, their eyes locked. Sophie had never, not once, been this forward. She was totally caught off guard. Except for their initial kiss in the butterfly hutch, Sophie had always been fairly reserved, and Robin had been the one to be rather upfront, but today everything seemed topsy turvy.
"Well, I...I love you no matter who you are or what you wanna be or what things you like," Robin said, smiling nervously as Sophie backed her against the fridge, "you know that, you know nothing can change that."
"I'm challenged, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not my sister," Sophie said, "and I'm tired of pretending to be, and I'm tired of pretending to be the person I created to not be her, and I'm tired of having nobody in my life know me. I want you to know me."
Robin nodded, exhaling.
"I...I know how you feel," she said, "I really do."
"I'm crazy in love with you," Sophie said, taking Robin even more by surprise, as, again, Sophie was rarely this vocal about her romantic feelings, adding, "and...I'm tired of pretending I'm not or that that's something shameful that has to be hidden as well."
Robin pulled Sophie's face to hers and kissed her, and for one brief moment everything in the world was right. And then the door to the apartment opened, and Kyle - who was supposed to have been working late - was standing in the living room staring at the girls as Robins eyes connected with his over Sophies shoulders and time itself felt like it stopped. The enrichment was over.
The zookeeper was home.