When Bartlett Left the Bear (6-10)

The Pimlico bus left Gate C every twenty minutes until 9pm, when it began arriving every 30 minutes; this meant that if Bartlett was unable to finish her day’s work early enough she would often loll around until 9:20 before making her way to the north gate, or she would pop in to see Bartlett resting up to the rocks that were beginning to cool in the night air and often she would take the specially designed beach boll shaped toy designed for zoos (it was made of a high-density polystyrene grade compound that would feel substantive to the bear and not be torn to pieces immediately in play and also would not collapse a member of the staff should he or she be on the receiving end of it in a game of catch), and so Bartlett enter would the cage gently and place it next to the bear so that it would be available to her in the morning when the direct morning sun from the east was quite jarring despite the coolness of the mornings. Often the bear would still be ambling about her quarry, or going for lap swims around it in the dark, now with only the sparsely placed night posts reflecting their ghosts on the surface of the black, rippling water.