Edna waited everyday for Horace the hippo to lift his giant gray head from below the surface of the cool water. She loved how the water seemed to move right out of the way for Horace, the way his eyes blinked the water away and how it flowed down the sides of his enormous face. How he let out a big burst of air and fine spray blew out in front of him. On sunny days he would create a beautiful little rainbow with his blow spray.
On this morning Edna had already paid a visit to the penguin pool, rode on the back of a leopard and refreshed her nest from a long, fine tail hair she was able to snatch while the elephants stood feeding.
Edna had lived at the zoo all of her life. She could have flown far away as some of her species do, at least for the cold winter months but Edna liked her home at the zoo just the way it was. She recalls once telling her brother Bruce, how she felt that there was really no need to travel to other places when the world already lived right here. She explained, we have lions, tigers, bears of all kinds, ant-eaters and armadillo, bats, snakes, elephants, iguanas, penguins, crocodiles, buffalo and giraffe, meerkat and mongoose, oh and those darling red panda twins, she thought and smiled warmly.
On this morning, Edna had hoped to visit Horace whom she heard was feeling sad.
Horace also had always lived at the zoo. He had been born in captivity, his mother a hippopotamus from East Africa was transferred to the zoo just a few months before Edna’s mother, Clarabelle decided to nest there. Edna recalls her mother telling her all about how Gertrude, Horace’s mother had allowed her to build their home in their den. Clarabelle had recently left her family’s nest in Manhattan and had dreams of meeting friends from all over the globe, so she set her sights on the perfect nest at the Bronx Zoo.
Gertrude and Clarabelle became fast friends. They often had long talks in the shade near the waterfall. Clarabelle, a teacher of sorts was able to see the entire zoo, where Gertrude was confined. Gertrude would ask Clarabelle to explain what the beavers looked like and asked her how they go about building their dams. Gertrude would try and match the various sounds of the animals to the descriptions Clarabelle would share. Long days in the shade, chatting, speculating and laughing about how crazy to be a creature with both arms and legs, how strange the monkeys; for grooming one another and eating the things they find.
When Horace was born, there were so many people around. Edna recalls how her mother would describe it. Horace was the first hippo to ever be born in captivity at Bronx zoo, so vans arrived with men and women pouring from them, scurrying about, shining bright lights and taking photographs of new baby Horace. Clarabelle remembers how sad she felt for Gertrude, who could not find herself alone with her new adorable baby.
Clarabelle on the other hand, hatched little baby Edna into the world without notice. In fact, she hatched Edna, Bruce, Ginger and Magnolia without even a single human peeking in on them. Perched high above the coyotes, near the fresh stream. All 4 of them learned to hunt, fly, play and even built their own nests amongst the neighboring trees. When fall came, all decided to make their journey to warmer, longer days, all except Edna.
Edna liked her life right here in the zoo. She had made so many friends. She delighted in moving her nests about the zoo, discovering an array of suitable locations, each one seeming to fit her lifestyle needs of the time. The diversity around her made her think there would never be a place so much like home as this.
Edna finished her breakfast of seeds stolen from the giraffe pen and berries missed by the orangutans. Combing her top knot and giving a quick shine to her beak, she stole a glance in the window near the otter’s slide and flew off to find Horace.
She landed outside of his indoor paddock, glancing in to see if he was even up and awake yet. Usually she could tell by the shadowy images, whether his bulky body was nestled in there or not. He didn’t seem to be inside, so she flew over to the swimming hole, expecting to find him lounging in the sun after having a bit of breakfast, but nope, he wasn’t at the swimming hole either. Edna flicked about, jumping from branch to branch, hoping to see him fast asleep, resting in his hippo house, but Horace was nowhere to be found.
Edna thought ‘ one last spot’ and flew around the enclosure, ducking and diving to avoid the low hanging limbs and sure enough Horace was nestle up as close and tight as he could to a large, gray rock, almost the same size and shape as his own enormous body.
Lightly landing on the rock, Edna didn’t make a sound. He appeared to be sleeping, so she watched him take big soft breaths in and out, in and out. Edna loved to see his hippo ears do their little dance when she would blow on them, so she took in her longest, deepest breathe and as though counting to 10 on the exhale, she blew gently right into his ear. His ear did that little flutter that hippo or cat ears do when you blow on them. The kind of shake and flutter that is a perfect response to a wind tickle. Edna even had to hold her breath for a moment as to not let out a giggle and wake her friend. Her blow to his ear remained constant until he shook them vigorously and without opening his eyes, rolled onto his side to reposition his giant body, moving himself lower to the ground to avoid the breeze.
Just then Edna jumped to the ground below and poked Horace right on the tip of his nose, with her tiny beak. Startled he leaned back suddenly with crossed eyes and a crazy tilt to his head getting a better look at what was suddenly before him.
“Good morning Horace”, Edna peeped. “It’s a beautiful day today”. Horace, not in the mood for Edna’s enthusiasm, harrumphed a “Beautiful Shmeautiful” and lazily rolled back to his side.
Edna leapt from the gravel up to his shoulder and took a tiny hop right up to the bottom of his ear and said “Heard you were feeling sad today Horace, can I help?” “Yep, I am feeling kind of blue today Edna” Horace said with a sadness that made Edna’s heart heavy.
Edna knew that every now and again, her happy hippo friend would just take to feeling a little out of sorts and sad. At first this alarmed Edna, as she rarely experienced this herself. She wasn’t sure how to be a good friend to Horace, but then she realized that Horace had used the word “Blue” to describe how he was feeling. You see Edna loves color more than anything. Some days she will spend the entire day watching the flamingos and recording how many shades of pink she can find and there was this one time at the chameleon shelter, she found 116 color shifts in one day.
“Horace, I did hear you were feeling sad, which I know you have described as feeling blue, so guess what I brought today”? Edna said with as much joy as she could muster. Horace taking in a deep exasperated breath of equal parts curiosity and resignation, harrumphed a “What did you bring today Edna?” “O-R-A-N-G-E Orange” she exclaimed with a spark he couldn’t deny and bringing a feeling of warmth to his frosty heart. “Horace, I brought orange. Orange my favorite umbrella – so if you don’t mind, I’d like to sit with you today while we enjoy Blue and Orange and maybe just maybe we will both feel a little bit better in awhile”
