Week 7 Story: The Rainforest Cafe

*You can find this story on my portfolio site HERE.

The Rainforest Cafe

Long ago, every Saturday night was a special one at the Pangaea Zoo. All of the animals would look forward to the weekend, hoping they would be chosen. Eve, the zookeeper, and practically the mother of all the animals, would pick the three best behaved animals of the week to let out of their cages for the night to go eat in the Rainforest Cafe with her. 

Eve had worked in the zoo for what seemed like a hundred years and had grown close to every animal she tended to inside the zoo. She would feed them, bath them, and they all built relationships and trusted each other. So one day, they came up with this deal so the animals could have something to look forward to, and she didn't feel like a terrible person for keeping them contained forever. 

But every weekend, she always ended up choosing the Penguin, the Rabbit and the Kangaroo. And every Saturday, these three would spend all night in the Rainforest Cafe, laughing and eating and drinking with Eve...and the other animals started getting fed up with it. 

"Why don't we ever get chosen?" the serpents would say. "Does she not trussst us?"

The lions and the elephants would shake their head in agreement. They had all come to the realization that she would only choose harmless animals that couldn't potentially hurt her. Why did they even get their hopes up? 

"Of course I trust you!" Eve would say. "They were just the best behaved this week." Except that's what she said every week. 

And the animals weren't stupid. So one day, they came up with a plan. They decided they were going to all confront Eve at once and ask why they weren't ever chosen. 

The next day came, and when Eve came around to feed the serpents, they stole her keys when she wasn't looking and unlocked themselves. Then, they slithered over to the elephants pin and let them free... and then the lions. They all cornered Eve.  

Terrified for her life, Eve was also just hurt that they would go behind her back like this. Not only would they never go to the Rainforest Cafe, but she also decided to punish them all. She made the serpents poisonous, the lions so that everyone would always fear them, and the elephants slower than any animal she knew of. 

Eve quit working at the zoo later that evening, and the animals remain with their punishment to this day. 

The Rainforest Cafe in Las Vegas. Link here

Author's Note: This story is based on How Sun, Moon and Wind Went Out to Dinner. In this story, they all went to dinner together and were the children of one of the far Stars in the sky. The Sun and Wind were greedy and selfish, and ate the food themselves, without taking any home for their mom - but Moon didn't forget about her. When they got home, their mom asked the Sun, then Wind if they brought food home for her. Because Moon was the only one that did, she decided to punish the Sun and the Wind into what they are today, and making the Moon peaceful and beautiful - like it is today as well.

This has been one of my favorite stories that I've read thus far. This is actually the second story I've written about it - the other one was How Tornado, Hurricane and and Earthquake Walk Into a Bar, which you can read here if you want. Similar to the last time I wrote about this reading, I changed the characters but kept the plot pretty much the same. For this story, I decided to make it zoo themed to go with my portfolio theme.

Bibliography: How Sun, Moon and Wind Went Out to Dinner in Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).