Page 5 of Lucius

“Hi there,” he said with a broad grin. He was boyishly handsome with windswept blond hair and a tan from standing outside in the sun. His nametag read Alfie. “Do you have a ticket or are you going to buy at the gate?”

“I have free parking and admission with this coupon I got by email,” she said, showing him her reservation with a QR code.

“Oh, the VIP tour! They’re awesome, you’ll have a blast. So you get to park in our special lot, which is closer to the gate. Hang a left here at the fork and find a spot in the lot, then show this to the people at the front gate. Have fun!”

“Thanks, Alfie, I will!”

She put her phone on the seat next to her and pulled forward, taking a left and parking in the VIP lot. When she found a spot, she parked and grabbed her crossbody bag, which held her sketchbook and leather roll filled with pencils, and her phone, and got out.

Her phone buzzed and she saw it was Delia.

Have fun, kid. Don’t worry about your mom. She’s just worried you’re going to walk away from the salon and she’ll have to pay someone a living wage to answer the phone.

Sidney snorted.That’s what I figured. I plan to have a blast, don’t worry! Thanks for being so sweet.

Anytime, hon. Maybe you’ll meet Mr. Right and get your happily ever after.

Really? It’s a park.

Yeah, but you never know where love will strike. I thought your generation liked that sort of thing. Fate and all that.

Sidney chuckled.I do, but I’m mostly just interested in sketching the animals.

After texting goodbye, she turned off her notifications so she could focus on just being in the park and not worry about anything else. As she made her way to the front gates, which were tall and made of iron with animal silhouettes in the design, she thought about finding her Mr. Right.

She hadn’t been on a date in months. It was hard as heck to meet single guys at the salon and that’s where she spent most of her time. If she happened to see a good-looking guy, he was usually accompanying his wife or girlfriend for her hair appointment.

But she wasn’t at the park to meet her Mr. Right, she was there to see real live wild animals on the safari tour and sketch to her heart’s content. She would try to draw all that she could during the tour, but she also knew it wasn’t a long time, so she was going to take pictures with her phone that she could sketch from later.

At the front gate, a man and woman greeted her. She showed the woman her phone screen with the QR code.

“Hi, Sidney, and welcome to the Amazing Adventures Safari Park. Do you need a map or directions to the safari tour?”

“I know where I’m going, but I’ll take a map anyway. It’ll be a nice souvenir.” She took the map and folded it carefully, tucking it into her bag. The man asked to check her bag, and she handed it over. He gave a quick look inside and handed it back.

“You can go ahead and check in at the tour kiosk,” the woman said. “It looks like a tiki hut and is right at the entrance to the line for the VIP tours. Have fun.”

“Thanks, I will!”

Sidney smiled at them and headed through the gates and into the park. She hung a left and passed by the security office and made her way toward the safari. At the tiki hut, which was staffed by three men wearing dark blue golf shirts, she smiled and showed them her phone screen.

One of the men, who looked to be about her age, scanned it and smiled as he handed her phone back. “Hi, Sidney, welcome. Have you been on a tour with us before?”

“No.”

“I’ll walk you over and tell you all about it,” he said. “My name is Felix, and I’m one of the tour guides.”

She walked with him to a set of ropes that made up the lines for the tour and told her what to expect. “Once it’s time for your tour, you’ll be taken to a Jeep where a driver and the guide will take you on the tour. Each visitor gets enough time to see the animals in the paddocks without feeling rushed, and we’ll take your picture at each paddock as well. Do you have a favorite animal? I always like to ask just out of personal curiosity.”

They stopped when they reached two other women in line, who Felix said were waiting for their noon tours as well.

“I pretty much like all the animals, but I’ve been working on drawing elephants, so I’m pretty excited to see one up close.”

“You draw? That’s awesome.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Getting the coupon by email was so neat and really timely since I’ve been wondering how I’d get to see exotic animals up close.”

“This will be perfect for that,” he said with a nod. “And we also have the petting zoo and bird sanctuary.”

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