Good Fences - 7/24/14: "Bearizona"

Good Fences Thursday challenges us to post an image of a fence or gate each week.

 
Today I'm taking you to Williams, Arizona (near Flagstaff.) The famous Route 66 runs through the town and Bearizona is just outside of it.

Bearizona has two parts. One is a drive-through zoo where one has to keep the windows closed and drive slowly so as not to run into bears, buffalo, wild goats, rams, deer or wolves.

 The other part is a walk-through zoo surrounded by a substantial fence with a carved bear guarding the entrance. In that area we saw porcupines, raccoons, more bears, some small wild cats (maybe lynx), foxes and enjoyed a demonstration of birds of prey. There were a few peacocks running about loose. And they had a cage of money-grubbing Ravens. If you slipped the end of a dollar into the cage, one of them would take it and place it into a donation box.

 I have mixed feelings about zoos. I am an animal lover who enjoys seeing live animals that I would never see in the wild, yet I hate to see them locked up. I know that keeping some endangered species in captivity is the only way to preserve them, but I don't think we're short of bears or rams, yet.  These animals seemed to be well cared for and they live in settings as natural as they can be without being in the wild.

Bearizona, near Williams, AZ

Close-up of bear sculpture.

Raven, trained to grab money
and place it in a plexiglas donation box.

Young bears are kept in a
special section inside the
large fenced area.  I think this
fellow is climbing a fake tree.

The Goddess of Love (Fiction)

In response to a writing prompt at Write on Edge:

Write about a face to face meeting which, for better or for worse, doesn’t go as planned. Fiction or memoir, 450 words.

        It had been thirteen months since Diana left Al.  And with good reason. He had quit his job. He didn’t try to find work. At first he reluctantly did housework, but soon he parked himself all day in a lounge chair drinking and watching ESPN.

“If you leave, you might spend the rest of your life alone,” a friend had warned.

But wouldn’t anything be better than living with a freeloading drunk? Diana packed and moved while Al visited his brother. 

She moped around her apartment, wondering if she had made a mistake.  She stubbornly refused to answer Al’s calls or e-mails. Yet she missed him ---the Al she married, not the one she left.

Shaking herself out of her gloom, she exchanged her mousey style for an ash-blonde bob.  She joined a gym and eliminated all white food, including sugar, eventually losing two dress sizes. She traveled to Greece.

Two days after her return, she joined an online dating service. Leery of posting personal information, she acquired a second e-mail address, calling herself  The Greek Goddess.  She gave no personal details and posted no photo.

She had corresponded with several men and had met two for coffee ---informal encounters she could leave quickly if necessary ---but nothing had clicked. Since the beginning of November, she corresponded with The Bear.  She loved his self-deprecating humor. The Bear eschewed personal information, too, requesting a face-to-face where he promised to reveal all, but after two disappointments, Diana wanted to continue the online flirtation for a while.

The day after Christmas, in an e-mail, The Bear invited her to join him for dinner on New Year’s Eve. Within a few days, they agreed to meet in Giannopoulos' bar. She described herself as a blonde who would be wearing a red cocktail dress.

When Diana entered the bar, she saw several men who might be The Bear. And then, she froze. Sitting at the first stool was Al.  She scampered behind him to find a seat at the far end where it was darker.  She turned slightly toward the wall, hoping The Bear would hone in on her red dress. 

She felt the presence of someone behind her. A seductive voice said, “If you’re The Greek Goddess, I’m Ursa Major.”

Diana turned to find Al standing behind her with a huge grin. The smile faded quickly.  

“It, it’s you,” he stammered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t...”

Realizing she had been flirting with her own husband, Diana was speechless.

“I’ll go,” Al said. “I’m leaving.”

But Diana saw the tears in his eyes and put her hand on his arm as he turned to leave.

"Don't,” she said.  “Let’s talk over dinner.”