Mistaken for Strangers
an excerpt

Lightning cracked, thunder rolled, and Ruby Guthrie groaned. Pulling her tiny jacket around her closer, she kept walking past the elephants.
It must have been two weeks now since this whole trip started - from Maryland to here, walking some, hitch-hiking when she was lucky. Maybe one night of good sleep, all added up. She felt the first heavy drops of rain fall on her hair and shoulders, and shivered. It didn’t look like tonight would be too restful, either.
Someone walking through the Atlanta Zoo would find her a mystery to look at, perhaps even more interesting than the panda bears or the snakes in the reptile house. Her clothes were bedraggled, obviously slept in, but also obviously of good quality. The jacket she wore would not have kept a child warm; it was ornamental at best. Her hair was a lustrous red, but hacked away at with what might have been child’s scissors. Overall, she proved a strange sight… though surely not the strangest that the animals in the zoo had ever seen.
The rain began to fall in earnest, now. The pavement beneath her feet began to darken, and her footing – already unsteady thanks to some highly impractical walking shoes – became worse. Finally, she staggered to sit down on a bench facing the lions’ enclosure.
If I’d known what I was getting into, maybe I would have put some money into some hiking boots, she thought sourly. Pulling her right shoe off, she winced to see yet another blister.
She was so tired. So very, very tired. She wanted to nod off, curl up on this bench, huddle herself tight against the rain and just sleep. She couldn’t do that, though. If she did, they’d catch up with her. They’d find her, and they’d bring her back.
It wouldn’t hurt, though, to rest for five minutes? She needed to get off her feet, just for a few moments – massage some feeling back into her toes. She sighed, a wise and world-weary sigh from a girl who, two weeks back, wouldn’t have been considered wise at all. Now, all her hope was in her past.
Her eyelids slowly drifted downward, and she pinched herself on the arm to keep herself awake. Things would be so much easier if she could… but no. That would bring them right down on her. God, she thought, I wish Ingot was here. But of course, that couldn’t happen. If Ingot could find her, they could find her. Leaving Ingot behind was a matter of necessity, no matter how painful it had been.
“You should leave.” The words, spoke in a low, rough voice, caused her to gasp. She looked around, but could see no one standing nearby. Then, she realized who had spoken. She stood up, walked over to the railing, and looked down into the lion pen.
“Are you talking to me?” she asked, knowing full well the answer.
“Of course I am, woman-child. Is there anyone else around?” The lion sat under a rock overhang with several others of its kind. They were all sheltering from the rain, lying lazily on the dry ground under the rock. None of the others seemed to be interested in what their leader was saying.
Of course there wasn’t anyone else around. It was a Tuesday morning – a rainy Tuesday morning – in a zoo. Who went to the zoo in the rain?
“No, there isn’t.” she said sadly. “Can’t I just sit for a while? Please? I’m so tired…”
The lion frowned. “You bring danger, girl, and we want none of it. We want you gone.”
“Right. I’m sorry.” Ruby nodded, and turned to leave. “Be well.”
“Farewell,” the lion said.
Ruby pulled her jacket tightly around herself as she kept walking. The lions were always touchy, of course, but rarely as rude as that. She ran a hand through her close-cropped hair, and tried to think of something – anything – that she could do.
Nothing came to mind. Shivering, she walked out of the park, through the rain.