“Look! There’s an antelope!”
“Where?”
“Over to the
left.”
Yossi turned his
head a full ninety degrees and smiled. “We just saw an antelope.”
“And what else
have we seen?
Yossi
immediately ticked off a long list which read like a roll call of the animal kingdom,
liberally punctuated with the words, we saw prefacing the name of each
species.
Tante Miriam
then matter-of-factly mentioned that the rhinoceros was an endangered species.
“What’s an endangered
species?” asked Yossie.
“There are
hardly any of them left.”
“How can that be?
demanded Yossi in a respectfully incredulous tone. “We just saw
three of them!”
“Yes, we just
saw three of them,” repeated Tante Miriam to herself in muffled tones, as she
decided to change the subject.
“So how do you
like your first trip to the zoo?”
“This is the
most fun trip I ever had!” exclaimed Yossi.
But no sooner was the word had out of his mouth that his face
dropped a bit, not precipitously mind you, but just enough to be attract the
attention of Tante Miriam.
“If this is the
most fun trip you ever had, Yossi, then why aren’t you smiling?”
“We didn’t see the
barbarusa,”
said Yossi in a tone that could
qualify him as poster boy for the Unhappy Camper.
Tante Miriam thought
for a moment and then asked, “how many animals did you see, Yossi?”
“So many!” shouted
a now smiling Yossi, as the memory of the most fun trip he ever had once again
took center stage in his mind. “I would
still like to see the barbarusa a different time,” said Yossi, “but I’m happy
with all the animals I saw today.
It was Tante Miriam’s
turn to smile now.
After all, it’s
not every blind boy that can be happy with what he can see today while patiently waiting
for the sights that tomorrow will bring.
