Rome Beauties

By Laura Rodley

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“Hurry,” growled Ramon. “We’ll never get back in time. The gates will close without us.”

“If these apples weren’t so heavy, we’d be faster. Whose idea was this anyway?” Simone sped up, hitching her thumbs under her faded green knapsack straps.  

“Yours, remember?” Ramon hitched his knapsack higher, balancing as his feet slipped on cobblestones as they slid down Monkey Hill.

“We’ll never make it.”

“Lighten up,” Simone held her breath while balancing to avoid toppling over with her apples.  “Craig, you’re quiet,” observing a tall man wearing a thin green sun-bleached jacket, paper bag full.

“I’m good,” Craig answered through a mouthful of orange pippin.

“We’d be hopping trains in New Mexico for winter, ‘stead of here in cold Delaware, if Lisa hadn’t broken her leg,” said Simone.

Ramon glared, held a finger up for silence as they reached cobblestones arranged in a level semi-circle by the zoo entrance gate, where they lived, for now. They wore jeans and denim jackets sun-bleached green when hopping trains, their usual occupation. No suitcases, no extra clothes, only knapsacks and bags now full of apples.

Mingling inside a usual final crowd crush before 6, they could slide along without paying. The town church chimes rang once, twice, again, four, five, six, too late. “Where’s all the people,” hissed Ramon.

“Lisa’s waiting for dinner, we can’t just leave her there, hungry,” lamented Simone.

A bus laden with a football crowd waving flags with stars, stripes, yellow and blue, colors of Delaware University’s mascot, the blue hen, screeched to a stop. The driver plummeted out, handing tickets to its ebullient boozy crowd surging forward, catching Ramon, Simone and Craig in their wake.

Squeezed between an overweight woman wearing a blue hen mask, and one blowing a striped paper party horn, they reached the chimpanzee cages.

 Ramon scanned the perimeters, “Now.” They scooted through an opening between the cage’s base of rocks and crumbled concrete. 

“Thought you’d never get here,” Lisa lay on her bed of layered newspaper on milk crates, away from the damp. As the crawl space was directly under the food storage room next to the chimpanzee cages built with solid concrete floors, they often caught drizzle from over-zealous attendants spraying into far gutters.

“That was a close call. Rome Beauties, autumn’s best,” Simone tossed an apple to Lisa from her crouched position, as the ceiling was four feet above.

Adeptly caught, Lisa rubbed the apple against her quilted vest. “My leg’s better, let’s leave now.”

“Yeah, right; remember last time?  You fell in that cast getting on the curb. No way you’re hopping trains; your ankle’s still swollen,” Ramon gently kissed her mouth, full of apple.

 “Lying here listening to people talk to chimps drives me nuts. Then, if it’s quiet, listening for the guards. The chimps are awfully used to us feeding them. They made a racket when you weren’t here to feed them their snack.”

“On it,” Craig slipped out another crack at the wall’s far side. 

“Cheetah,” he held an apple out. Reaching out a furry paw, wizened leather palm, Cheetah took it, eyeing Craig. Both retreated as the football crowd jammed the cobblestone walkway.

“Marge, that one looks like Gramps, no teeth and all,” one pulled drinks from a pocket flask, gray hair marine short.

“He has teeth, Peter dear, look at him grin at you, showing off. He’s full of slobber, it’s disgusting.”

“Maybe he could use this to clean himself up,” another threw his football flag between the iron cage rungs.    

Others threw flags, rocks, sticks from overhead sycamore trees, orange leaves, sticky monkey-ball seeds, hitting a chimp’s eye.

Craig grabbed his apple bag, pinged them at the crowd, knocking off a hat, smacking a face, an arm, as the chimps inside their cages screeched.

Two elderly guards, unused to commotion, beat long black flashlights against their palms.  “Leave those chimpanzees alone.”

Peter smashed his fists into the closest guard’s face, knocked him out, as well as two teeth.

Craig hurtled his final apples as the chimpanzees reached though bars to pull the crowds’ hair, rattling the cage door, and escaped. 

He lifted the guard George up in his arms, who extended his walkie-talkie. “Call police.” 

“Which dial?”

“This,” George’s head lolled back.

Red and green apples pelted the crowd, flung by Simone and Ramon.

“Peter, I’ve had enough,” Marge’s Delaware State University logo blazed. “You’re too old for this.”

“I’m not old,” Peter pushed her away.

 Craig stepped over George. “Look what you’ve done.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, punk,” Peter shoved Craig as sirens sounded.

 One chimpanzee catapulted from a sycamore, pinched Peter, pulled his hair.

“No, Cheetah, they’ll put you down if you hurt someone,” said Craig, offering him a bruised orange pippin.   

Cheetah sneered wide white teeth at Peter, then ambled on short feet balanced by long arms, jumped into Craig’s arms, mewling, patted his back.

“What if I get rabies,” Peter whined.

“I hope you do,” Ramon grabbed Simone, enticed chimpanzees back with apples as cops arrived.

“These punks attacked us. That chimp bit me.” Peter waved his ripped sweatshirt.

“Let’s go,” the cop handcuffed Craig.

“Wait,” the second guard stepped from behind the sycamore, forehead gash dripping. “They saved George; this guy would’ve killed him; too many bullseye hits; they nigh knocked me out.

“These kids got all the chimps back, worth thousands. Last time, took three weeks, two put down for biting; fear of rabies, though they have all their shots.”

            “This one bit me,” Peter pointed at Cheetah, crying on Craig’s shoulder. “Arrest him.” 

“Looks like we’ll arrest you. Look at those puncture wounds. Rabies is a slow terrible death.  Ambulance needed; injured guards,” ordered a blonde crew-cut cop.

“I’m not going to get rabies, am I?” wailed Peter.

“You never know,” the second guard wiped blood out of his eye.

“Want a job, kid?” he asked Craig, who glanced at Simone and Ramon.

Hitching closer, “I’ve got jobs for you, even that girl in there,” gesturing towards the wall.  “I may be old, but I’m not dumb.  Been wondering what to do with you as the weather’s gotten colder.  

“You’re all hired. Thanks for saving Cheetah here and the rest of the chimps.”

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