×

SmokeLong Quarterly

Share This f l Translate this page

Christopher

Story by Annie Hartnett (Read author interview) December 18, 2012

art by Karrah Kobus

It was Lynette’s ninth year as director of the Franklin Park Zoo. She’d been trying for a baby for seven of those years, and trying to adopt for two. The social worker called last Thursday, and said by Monday she’d have a six-month old available. It was a foster-to-adoption situation; the mother was a drug addict. The baby already had a name. Her husband didn’t think they should change it.

Lynette planned to work a short day Monday. In the morning, she had a meeting with a guy who called himself the Playground Guru. The zoo was overpaying him to build a new structure behind the kangaroos. At noon, Lynette walked to the Safari Grill for a Big Gulp, served in a collectable cup. She usually asked for the zebra cup, but today she picked the cup topped with a plastic lion’s head.

The zoo was supposed to have two lions, but the male, Christopher, had killed the female last summer. It was during visiting hours, a media nightmare. Christopher broke the lioness’s neck, bit her at the scruff and shook her dead.

Be Christopher, her husband would whisper during sex. Her husband couldn’t come unless her hands or a rope or even just her nylons were tight around his neck. Sometimes she wondered if that was why she couldn’t get pregnant, if his sperm lacked oxygen.

Lynette was halfway through the cherry Big Gulp when her phone beeped with a text from her husband: The mother’s in a clinic. We can still foster?

She snapped the phone closed. This was the closest they’d been, but there had been other disappointments. Lynette told herself that she’d felt this way before. She dropped the collectible cup into the trash and walked towards the lion’s exhibit.

Christopher was lying on his electric rock, which was kept heated to 85 degrees. It was October, already too cold for a lion. Christopher was fifty pounds overweight, but they couldn’t cut his food or he’d get more aggressive. Fifty pounds doesn’t look like much on a lion. You could still see his ribs.

A little boy and his mother were the only people at the exhibit. The boy was licking the glass. The glass was two panels thick, bullet proof. Lynette waited for the mother to ask him to stop.

“I’m a snake,” the boy said.

“Is he happy?” the mother asked.

“Your son?” Lynette pointed. “He’s licking the glass.”

“The lion, zookeeper.”

“I’m in administration,” Lynette said. “Not a zookeeper.”

“So he’s happy,” the mother nodded. “He’s a happy lion.”

Lynette paused to look at Christopher. His lips curled in his sleep, showing his long yellow teeth.

“Lions sleep for twenty hours a day,” Lynette said. “But no. He’s not happy.”

The boy stopped licking the glass and started to cry.

I’m a snake, Lynette thought, but she apologized, handed the mother a fistful of Safari Grill coupons.

About the Author

Annie Hartnett lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She has recently had stories published in Indiana Review, PANK Magazine and Monkeybicycle. To find out more (or to see pictures of her dog), please visit Annie Hartnett on Tumblr.

About the Artist

Karrah Kobus is a conceptual portrait artist and wedding photographer from Minneapolis, MN. Karrah stumbled upon the magic of photography while studying for an anthropology course—she came across a photo created by Rosie Hardy and knew immediately that she was meant to be a photographer also. With her budding career taking her across America and to Mexico and Canada, it has been an adventurous two years for Karrah. She’s driven across the country to meet perfect strangers and bathe in waterfalls after covering herself in mud. She’s spent countless nights, mornings and afternoons running around aimlessly and just because she had her camera; everything was, and always will be, okay. Sometimes she feels like photographers have uncovered a special secret. A crazy, amazing, and beautiful secret. The key to truly living. And all she wants is to be alive.

This story appeared in Issue Thirty-Eight of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Thirty-Eight
ornament

Support SmokeLong Quarterly

Your donation helps writers and artists get paid for their work. If you’re enjoying what you read here, please consider donating to SmokeLong Quarterly today.

SmokeLong Fitness--The Community Workshop

Book Now!

Included in the price of SmokeLong Fitness:

The Community Workshop in small groups
One live Zoom webinar each month with killer workshop leaders (recorded for participants unable to attend).
One open-mic party each month (or other live Zoom events)
Discounts on intensive workshops
Discounts on senior editor feedback
Surprises (good ones)