By Hunter Perez
The morning drive to the zoo was without conversation. Jock had some abysmal talk show playing on his car radio while Simon sat next to him in the passenger seat bopping his head to the music that only he could hear through his earpieces. I sat in the back seat with the large box containing the gorilla costume, irritated by the babbling from the radio talk show and apprehensive that something awful would happen to me once I was locked in the gorilla outfit.
Jock drove past the zoo’s main entrance and entered the venue through a side gate, where he parked the car and pointed us to a narrow path. Jock quickly engaged Simon in some sort of animated conversation that I could not hear, as I was walking four paces behind them carrying the large box with the gorilla costume. After what seemed like an endless walk, we came to a nondescript grey building where Eddie was waiting outside.
Eddie was typical of Jock’s friends – tall, broad shouldered, powerfully built and very handsome in a preppy manner. But unlike Jock’s friends, Eddie was always very pleasant with me. Whenever I was stuck at one of Jock’s parties, Eddie turned up to offer a chance for cordial conversation, always with a smile and a genuine sense of interest in whatever I was saying. While the cash incentive being offered for this cockamamie scheme roped me in, I was happy to help Eddie because he was always nice to me.
