Fluffy Oakes sits at the side of the enclosure, the glass screen separating him and Pablo, the zoo's koala. Pablo is opening his soul.
Fluffy asks, “have you heard back yet?”
“Nope. Don't know what they're playing at.”
“Sometimes it can take a while, y'know, to process results.”
“Hmm. That guy still interviewing you?”
“Matt Tuckey, yep. Going well. He's actually just had another story accepted in the States. A magazine called The Fabulist picked up something he did. 'Alarmed', it's called. Check it out."
Fluffy brings up the story on the webpage through his phone and presses the screen against the glass.
The two sit in silence as Pablo reads, sitting in the crook of a cut-off tree branch, and mulls the story over.
“Hmm... weird story. Good magazine, though. I like it.”
“Anything else on your mind, Pablo?”
“Well, I've done a bit of scribbling myself actually. Would you like to see my haiku?”
Pablo reaches to the back of his enclosure, grabs a scrap of paper and presses it against the window.
THE CLINIC
Burning sensation
“Don't look so nervous,” nurse says,
Handing me the pot
“Very evocative, Pablo. Just be careful who you show it to. If you know what I mean. I know it happens a lot with koalas, but still, no point making things hard for yourself.”
Pablo sits in silence. Fluffy taps the rubber tip of his pencil against his notepad...
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