Kevin opened his mouth to reply and she popped another spoonful of yogurt in. She looked at me smiling and said, “About right? I always shoot high with the little guys, they never want people to think their younger than they really are.”

“Yeah, just about,” I replied and Kevin turned to me and rolled his eyes. Meghan missed this and went to put another spoon into Kevin mouth and missed smearing it on his cheek.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Kevin…let me get you cleaned up…” she grabbed some napkins from the dispenser and started to clean up Kevin’s face. “This is just going to leave you all sticky. Do you have any wet-wipes in your bag?”

“Yeah, hold on a sec.” I reached into the bag and grabbed the travel pack of baby wipes and passed them along to Meghan.

She put her left hand on his chin and turned him to face her. She efficiently wiped his face clean turning it from side to side as she did so. “There we go…all clean…If you didn’t have these we’d have had to do a spit bath,” she laughed.

I laughed too, Kevin, not so much.

“I better get back to work,” she said after a moment. “It was so nice to meet you both. Bye-bye Kevin she said and waved her fingers at him.”

“Bye, Meghan.” Kevin and I said in unison.

“So cute!” she said and reached over and mussed up Kevin’s hair.

When she was gone, I said, “Sorry about that.”

“She wasn’t so bad,” Kevin said back. “She was really cute. Lousy aim though.”

I held Kevin’s cup so he could finish up and then said, “Let’s see what’s up with the traffic.”

I popped Kevin into the chair and buckled him in. I rolled him passed Meghan who waved again and said, “Come back soon.” Kevin waved too.

When we got out to the parking lot, Kevin said, “Why does everyone just assume it’s natural for a kid my size to be sitting in a stroller?”

I didn’t really have an answer. “Maybe they want to be polite so they act like there is nothing unusual about it.”

“Maybe… Do I really look that young?”

I didn’t know how to answer that without hurting his feelings, so I said, “Well…Oh look the traffics moving again. Let’s get to the zoo.”

Re: Summer Nurse

Chapter 27
The rest of our trip to the zoo was uneventful. Kevin’s mood had improved significantly once we were moving again. He was even humming a little tune to himself as we drove. When we pulled into the the zoo’s parking lot I was pleasantly surprised by how empty it actually was. I guessed that it was early enough in the summer that the day camps and summer programs weren’t bringing groups yet. We got a parking spot up close to the entrance and we went through the routine of setting up the wheelchair, shifting Kevin into it and getting my bag. I made sure Kevin had his hat and shades on because the sun was getting pretty bright.

When we got to the gate, I presented Terri’s family membership card and we were granted admittance and supplied with maps and a time table of events and shows. I passed the timetable and map to Kevin and asked him, “You’re in charge. Anything look interesting?”

“They have a program at the Bear enclosure in about 15 minutes that looks cool,” he said.

“Okay, where is it?”

Kevin looked at the map, “Hmm, other side of the park, but we can take the cable car to get to it.”

“Which way is that?”

Kevin pointed to the path that led to the tram and I wheeled him over that way. An attendant greeted us and directed us up the wheelchair ramp. “Cool,” Kevin said, “no waiting.”

When we got to the cable car, another attendant said, “You’ll need to fold up the stroller and hold the child on your lap ma’am.”

“Is that really necessary?” I asked.

“It’s the rules, ma’am. I don’t make ’em.”

“Okay.” I said and looked at Kevin who shrugged.

I picked him up and the attendant was nice enough to help me with the wheelchair, (I’m refusing to call it a stroller.) I sat down with Kevin on my lap, Then a man and woman with a little girl got on with us. The cable car left the station and began rising into the air.

Kevin said, “You get a great view from up here. If you look over there you can see where the have all the African animals. Over there is the Australian animals. Kangaroos and koalas and platypuses. Really cool. And over there is the new sea otter exhibit. I really want to go there next. Okay, Carrie?” He was getting excited.

“I told you, when we got here, you’re in charge. We’ll go anywhere you want.” I replied.

The lady smiled at Kevin and then said to me, “you’ve got yourself quite a tour guide. Haven’t you?”

I smiled back and shrugged. “He loves animals.”

The little girl said, “How come you’re riding in a stroller?”

“Tiffany, don’t be rude.” Her father said.

“It’s okay,” Kevin said. “It’s actually a wheelchair. I had an accident a couple of days ago and sprained my ankles and my wrist. So, I need some help getting around.”

“Oh,” Tiffany replied, “What happened?”

“I was doing a gymnastics routine and landed badly.”

“He’s a very well spoken little boy,” Tiffany’s mom said to me.

“Well,” I said, “he’s a bit older than he looks.”

We sat quietly for the rest of the ride and enjoyed the view. When we got off the cable car and I got Kevin strapped in he asked me to take him to the bathroom before we went to the exhibit. Again, I asked him to show me the way.