New Orbit Magazine Issue 08; Feb 2020, The Future of Animals

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The intern was all wrong. But then, any
intern at the City Zoo would be terrible, even
one without a ponytail and round, purpletinted
glasses. Still, the kid had a sextuplicate
form, and the top sheet said that this Max
Mejora, an anthropology graduate student at
the State U, wanted to be an intern at the
zoo.
“I don’t need any help,” I said. “Zoo’s
been practically empty for five years. There’s
nothing to do but tidy up.”
The kid eyed the name sewn onto my
shirt. “Franklin? Look, I’m not afraid of a
little hard work. Maybe you can take it a little
easy for a while. Rest your dogs.”
I wanted to tell him to shove off. I didn’t
need to take it easy, and I resented the
implication that I could be replaced by some
unpaid college intern. I held my tongue.
Truth was, I knew I couldn’t ignore the multicolored,
sextuplicate, carbon-copy
government form he had. I held it by the
corner to keep the ink from smudging. After
too many hacking incidents, the city
bureaucrats stopped using email. Apparently
now something was wrong with copy
machines too. The top pink sheet of the form
said that Max was working on a thesis called:
“The Extinction of Exotic Macrofauna
Showcases.”
I jabbed a finger at the title. “What does
that mean?”
“It means I’m studying zoos, or the lack
of them,” the kid said. “For hundreds of
years, human beings have had a fascination
with zoos. They proliferated in the 1400s