Page 3 of Alistair

He could smell the food cooking in the stalls as they prepped for lunch, and the scents in the air were enough to make him consider taking a hard left and grabbing a burger from Tarquin and Lucy’s stall. But instead, he stopped and looked around.

“You okay, Alistair?”

Alistair rubbed the space over his heart again and looked at Xavier, one of the lions who handled park security and was out on patrol. “I’m good, I think.”

“You seem like you’re looking for something,” the young male said.

Alistair tilted his head and inhaled, sorting through the scents of food and people, but he didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary.

Still.

Something was going on.

“I think…” Alistair said.

“Think what?”

“I think my soulmate’s here.”

“What? Where?” Xavier asked, looking around.

“I don’t know,” he said. He smiled at the male and clapped him on the shoulder. “But she’s somewhere. I can feel it in my bones. My elephant dragged me out here, so he sensed it.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! So you’re just going to walk around?”

“Yep.”

“Well, good luck, man!”

“Thanks.”

Alastair nodded at Xavier and started walking. He wasn’t sure where his soulmate was, just that he was certain she was within the tall stone walls that surrounded the park. He just had to find her.

Maggie Hughes looked at the tablet as each child in her class climbed onto the bus. She checked each name and smiled at the kids, who were all wearing bright yellow shirts that they’d decorated in art class earlier in the week. The shirts were all the same color so the kids could be easily identified as part of the group.

She’d been subbing for the first grade class for a few weeks, after getting called in by the school district when their regular teacher had a family emergency and needed time off.

This was Maggie’s last day subbing for the class. She was bummed because she really enjoyed teaching kids, but she was also looking forward to her next adventure. There weren’t many subs in her district, so she was sure she’d have another job soon enough, and if she didn’t, she could always go work at her parents’ plant nursery, which was super busy in the height of spring planting.

She clicked the last kid on her list of fifteen and turned to the bus driver.

“That’s all for my class, Kevin.”

“All right,” he said with a nod.

She climbed onto the bus and sat behind the driver. The other teacher, Jenny, had been the other first grade class teacherfor two decades, and she didn’t look nearly as ecstatic about a trip to the Amazing Adventures Safari Park as Maggie was.

“Let’s roll out,” Kevin said cheerfully.

The kids cheered.

Maggie said, “I haven’t been to the park since I was a kid.”

“This is the first time our school has been able to take advantage of the park’s school tours. I took my kids when they were little,” Jenny said.

The scenery blurred by as they left the school behind and headed to the park, where a private safari tour, lunch, an hour of time on the brand-new carousel, and a meet and greet with the animals in the petting zoo were on the schedule. She was most looking forward to the safari tour because she loved seeing the wild animals.

“It’s going to be a great day,” she said.