Witnessing the Wonder

Mr. Grumbles, a man whose very name seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face, shuffled closer. He’d tried to ignore the hullabaloo, the giggles like a cascade of tiny bells, the squeals of delight that were far too loud for his perfectly ordered zoo. But the sound, like a particularly persistent itch, kept drawing him. He peeked through the sturdy, if somewhat dull, bars of the enclosure, his brow furrowed into a magnificent, mountainous landscape of disapproval.

What he saw made his jaw, already set in a permanent grimace, loosen just a fraction. It wasn’t the usual zoo fare. No roaring lions, no sleepy sloths, no squawking parrots. Instead, a riot of color and pure, unadulterated joy was unfolding. Pinky, that impossibly pink, impossibly square creature, was in her element. She was demonstrating, with grand gestures and a voice that bubbled with mirth, her latest invention.

Around her, a circle of children, their faces alight with wonder, hung on her every word. They weren't bored. They weren't fidgeting. They were utterly, completely captivated. Mr. Grumbles adjusted his spectacles, squinting at the creature Pinky was currently describing. It was, she explained with a flourish, a “Giggle-Snout.” It looked, to Mr. Grumbles’s traditional eye, like a fluffy, purple potato with a snout that wiggled and emitted a sound suspiciously like a suppressed chuckle.