A Glass Menagerie, Open!!!

[Princess Addie]

Addie walked through the zoo slowly, stopping at every single exhibit. She looked at all of the animals closely, giggling when the lions played with each other, and pressing her face up against the glass to make it make a noise like somebody had passed gas. Her nanny instantly reprimanded her for that, and she frowned.

"I'm sorry, I can't always be ladylike," she said matter-of-factly. With that she skipped off around the curb, totally unwitting to having a bodyguard and nanny hot on her tail. She ducked into the the reptile house, eager to see some scary snakes, as long as they were behind glass, and lost track of her nanny and bodyguard. But unlike most six year olds, Addie wasn't frightened. After all, most of the people that she had met so far in life were very nice to her. And she had come here last month on a school outing. She knew her way around - kind of.

[Alice Morrison]

Alice had loved the zoo when she was a child. One of her favourite places, she would always beg her parents to take her there. As she grew older her interests turned towards other things, and she began going to the zoo less and less. Now, however, she was back again, reminiscing about her childhood.

First, she went to see the elephants, her favourites. She didn't know what it was exactly, but there was something that she loved about them. Back when she was three or so, the first time she had seen an elephant, she had almost cried when she found out that she couldn't keep one at home as a pet. The elephants were so large and lumbering, yet they seemed to have a certain grace and elegance.

Exiting the elephant area, Alice came to the reptile house. Snakes had always been one of the more frightening creatures to her, especially the big ones. As long as they were behind glass though, she felt safe enough. She spotted a particularly large one and cringed involuntarily. She knew that the snake couldn't hurt her from where it was, but still...

Looking over at the next snake, she spotted a familiar looking face--Princess Adele. She was quite the darling of the media, and pictures of her were almost everywhere. It was a rare occasion to actually see a member of the royal family in public, except at formal events. Perhaps this was part of some private outing or party--was Alice even supposed to be in the reptile house?

[Princess Addie]

Addie walked up to the glass as a large snake began hissing, and she put her hands up to near where he was. All of the sudden he struck at her hand, and she jumped back, shrieking. The snake had tried to kill her! If there hadn't have been glass there, she would have died!!!

Addie grabbed the hand of a pretty lady near her, her face white and near hysteria. "That snake tried to kill me!" She cried, clutching the hand of the only adult in sight. Where was her body guard when she needed him? He should kill that mean snake!

[Alice Morrison]

Alice too was a bit shocked when the snake struck at the glass, but she tried not to show it. She wouldn't let herself be affected by such a thing. What really surprised her though, was when she felt somebody grab her hand. She almost jumped; there was nobody else she knew at the zoo, and she didn't expect a complete stranger to grab her hand. Looking down, for she could tell that the person was a child, she got a second shock. It wasn't just any child, it was the princess!

"It's okay," she ventured shakily, unsure of what to say to calm her down. "The snake can't get out from behind the glass. It can't kill you." Alice looked around, trying to find somebody in the princess's entourage. Virtually nobody else was in sight, and the few people that were were obviously just normal visitors. "The snake didn't want to kill you specifically, it probably just saw a bit of colour out of the corner of its eye and thought it was a mouse or whatever."

[Princess Addie]

Addie could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, and she squeezed her eyes shut so they wouldn't fall. She hated crying like a baby. Whenever she did her cousin, Prince Aaron, laughed at her. That was so mean of him. But she didn't like to cry anyway. Once she had cried when a polo ball hit her head at a match, and a picture of her crying had been in the newspapers the next day. That had made Addie embarrassed.

Addie put her arms around the lady's waist, buring her head in the lady's shirt. "But I'm not a mouse! It's a mean snake!" She said, her voice heavy with tears. She hated snakes more than almost anything in the whole wide world. She had been playing in the palace gardens with Aaron one day when a snake had almost bit her. Ever since she had had nightmares about them.

[Alice Morrison]

"It's okay," she said soothingly, trying to comfort the princess. "That's why the snake is locked up in the cage. Besides, snakes don't eat people." Sure, Alice had heard a couple stories of snakes eating people, but none of them were zoo snakes, and she didn't want to complicate the matter even further. "The zoo keepers would never let any animals in the zoo that were too harmful."

She should probably find somebody who Addie was with; a family member or nanny perhaps. It'd be quite unfortunate if somebody thought she was to blame for the princess's being upset of disappearance. "Are you here with anybody? One of your parents or a nanny?"

[Princess Addie]

Addie tilted her head back and looked at the lady. "Are you sure it wouldn't eat me? But it could still bite me. Is that one poisonous?" She asked. Unfortunately for the adults around, Addie was a pretty intelligent six year old. She knew about dying from snake bites. And she was scared of it.

Addie tilted her head to one side. "You're pretty. I like you." She said, in the very unpolished way of a child. She hadn't yet mastered the ability to twist what she said, or hide what she felt. She would in time, but for now she was totally open.

Addie giggled when the lady asked if her parents were with her. "Daddy doesn't like the zoo; he says it is dirty. And Mum is too busy organizing a dinner, I think. And even Helena is too busy for me. Like always." Addie shrugged. It wasn't a big deal to her. "But Kat is here with me, and so is Joe. I don't know where they are. They just went the other way, maybe."

[Alice Morrison]

"I'm sure it wouldn't eat you." Alice looked over at the sign on the wall. From this far away the text was kind of hard to read, but if she squinted she thought she could make it out. "I think it is," she admitted, hoping Addie wouldn't become too scared. She had been considering just saying that it wasn't, but if the princess read the sign or found out from somebody else...

"Thank you," she replied, smiling at the girl. Addie's comment was rather unexpected, but that made it all the better. It wasn't just a requisite pleasantry, it was an actual genuine complement, or at least at seemed to be such to Alice. "You're pretty too," she said.

Alice listened as Addie explained about her family. Before this day, she had only seen the royal family in the news or from far away at formal events. Due to her father's job, she knew a little bit more than normal about them, but just from a political perspective, not a personal one. Now, standing here in the middle of the reptile house at the zoo, she was actually hearing something real about them, something not created by tabloids or television. "That's good that Kat and Joe are with you," she said, wondering how exactly to handle the situation. "They probably will get upset when they find out that you're missing though..."

[Princess Addie]

Suddenly Addie thought of something. "Hey, you want to know something? It might eat me, cos my mummy says that I am as sweet as sugar, and if I wasn't so fattening she could eat me all up." Addie giggled, grinning up at the girl.

"I'm not so very pretty. Not like my sister, Helena. Everybody thinks that Helena is the absolute prettiest," said Addie, nodding seriously. "Besides, I wish that I looked like Mummy, but my hair is too red. Like Queen Elizabeth. Do you know who that is? She's dead now, though. She has been for a very long time." Addie nodded seriously. People always said that Addie was special because she was a red-headed princess, but she didn't think so. Her hair was shiny in the sun, though.

Addie was quite talkative when she got warmed up, and this woman was going to take the brunt of it. Most people didn't let her talk so uncontrollably. She was always being told to hush.

Addie wrinkled her nose. "Kat will prolly yell at me, and call me my whole entire name. But it's not my fault! She should have followed me. You'll tell her that I was safe, won't you? She worries that some mean person will get me, but you're not mean at all."

[Alice Morrison]

Alice couldn't help but laugh at what Addie had said. It was surprising, hearing the princess speak so naturally to her. When Alice had been that age she would never have even spoken to a stranger. And it was hard to imagine the Queen saying something like that, though that was probably just because she was used to the formal figure that the queen was in public.

"I think you're pretty too. People probably just focus more on Helena because she's older." It must be hard to have people constantly praising your sister and saying how beautiful she is. "I know who Queen Elizabeth is. She was cool because she ruled entirely on her own. She didn't need a king." Alice would have mentioned something about Addie and Queen Elizabeth both having red hair, but the girl had probably heard it countless times before.

"I'll tell her you were safe. But does she know you're in here?"