Linc expected to se a fenced enclosure with wild grasses, a wide open plain and striped horses. He also expected to hear neighing. He received what he expected.

Linc stared at the zebras. The group of them stayed squared off at the end of the enclosure. They huddled in a group and stayed a distance away from the crowds. No hooves clopped on the ground. The zebras bent their heads every so often to nibble at the ground. The grass swaying in the wind was more exciting than their static stripes. Linc leaned on the handrail. He kept his camera in his hands and away from his face.

"There they are." Linc pointed to the zebras after they had stood watching for a few minutes. "Zebras."

The zebras shook their heads a little as a cool breeze blew their way. A curios thought popped into Linc's head.

"Where does the name Zebra come from?"

As they came up to the edge of the zebra enclosure, Zoe stood and looked in at the animals. Then turned to look back at the man she had been talking to, watching as he looked across the grass at the zebras. Had he told her his name yet? Had she told him hers? Honestly, Zoe couldn’t remember.

But the man seemed much more interested in the animals than in her at the moment, so Zoe turned back to the enclosure and whistled. The zebras were a little far away for her to simply call to them, after all. But a couple of the zebras heard her and perked their heads up. One more whistle, to help them locate her since she wasn’t actually in the enclosure like she normally would be, and Zoe turned to look at the man beside her, waiting to see his reaction as the zebras started to make their way over.

Then he asked a question that Zoe really didn’t know how to answer, and she tilted her head as she looked at him in thought. ”I’m not really sure,” she admitted after a few moments. ”They don’t tend to teach where the English names of animals come from. They think that the scientific names are more important.”

"Oh, right. I was just curious," Linc said. He hid his face behind his camera and zoomed close to the striped horses. The black on white reminded Linc of prison, reminded him of the clothes of the incarcerated. He then tapped on the fence of the enclosure, and traced the fence as it snaked around the Zebra plains. Confined, immobilized, trapped. The stripes on the Zebras warped into prison bars, and their black noses into images of muzzles. These animals weren't free. How depressing. Sure they got all they could possible think of needing, for animals didn't think much. 

"How can you stand watching them frolic in an enclosure like this? I bet that's something you think about, right? What kind of life would these Zebras live if they weren't kept here. Born here. Raised here. Trapped here."

Linc felt his questions weren't too much, or at least they shouldn't be. A zookeeper had to sign an agreement, read the fine print, and submit to tending to these animals needs. They knew what they were going into, being assigned to a zoo and subjected to the routine and restrictions of the exhibit. The only difference between them and the animals was that they weren't on display. But Linc wasn't going to say that out loud. At least, he shouldn't have to.

Honestly, there wasn't much of a reaction, he just lifted his camera and started taking pictures. Not an interesting reaction at all, so Zoe turned back to watch as five zebras slowly over to them. If Zoe wasn't mistaken because of the distance, they were the five youngest at the zoo.

But then the man started speaking, asking her more questions, and Zoe turned to look at him again. A frown growing on her face as he continued. ”Well, it's obviously not ideal,” she told him after a few moments. ”But to be honest, they would probably all be dead if they were put into the wild. Most of them were born in captivity and wouldn't know how to protect themselves in the wild.

“One of our older zebras did come from Africa, but she was injured and they couldn't reintegrate her with her herd. But considering she's far less jumpy and nervous than when she first for here, I'd say that at least they have less stressful lives than in the wild.”

By this point, two of the zebras had made it much closer, will within range, and Zoe turned to look at them again as she heard them speaking. ”No, I don't have any carrots right now,” she said to the animals. ”I know I called you over, my friend wanted to see you. You'll get some years when I come back out.”

"You could say that the wild isn't an ideal place for anyone. Ideal is a pretty tame concept, especially in our use of the word. Plus, if Zebras didn't grow stressed, then they'd grow lazy."

Linc said in response to her spiel. It saddened him to hear about the older Zebra. To him, a struggle in the wild had some greater, inherent value than rotting away in captivity. Maybe it was a result of his conditioning on the farm, being around animals trained specifically to die. Slaughterhouses were a gruesome sight to behold. Animals were treated like gumballs in a vending machine. Living, breathing gumballs. Who's to say this zoo wasn't itself a giant slaughterhouse where the animals bled out in peace, slowly seeping life blood as others watched them suffocate in ignorant bliss.

As his thoughts wandered, two zebras had trotted closer to them. The female reached out with her words, and Linc believed what she said earlier. She was the favorite. Her familiar interaction with the creatures and the friend-like conversation she had with them made the moment more tender when he clicked to release his camera shutter.

"Do they have names?" Linc asked, growing more aware that the two of them hadn't yet shared theirs either.

Zoe tilted her head as she looked at the man. ”Sure, they don’t have miles of space to roam, and they don’t have to run from lions, but I don’t let them get lazy,” Zoe said.

Things were feeling like they were getting more tense between the two of them, and Zoe really wasn’t sure why. The man really didn’t seem to like the idea of the animals being ‘trapped’ there, yet he had come to the zoo to take pictures and had asked her to show him the animals. It really didn't seem to click to Zoe.

At least once a couple of the zebras came closer, and she had talked to them, the man did seem more interested and slightly less argumentative about the situation.

But then Zoe looked at him with a frown. ”Of course they have names,” she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was, wasn’t it? ”The one on the right is Mala, and on the left is Jami.”

The zebras clopped closer and their stripes seemed to leap off of each others' backs, back and forth. Their huge beady eyes looked up at him, eyes of a strange obsidian beauty. As they came closer they nuzzled each other's necks, like two siblings sharing inside jokes about the humans that stared at them from a distance.

"Mala and Jami. I don't know how you can tell the difference. They're practically twins." He brought up the camera to his face and the shutter snapped twice. One shot focused on Mala's gentle face, the other on Jami's.

He then took a glance at the zookeeper. She spoke to the animals the same way he used to speak to his brother. He never raised his voice at him and could always joke with him. It was rare for him to hold conversations like the ones he held with his brother. No one would be able to understand him, anyway. Linc lowered the camera from his face to sift through the pictures he just took, trying to stifle the sudden quivering he felt on his lower lip.

"You're pretty good at that talking thing. I can see why you stick around. If you came over to help out with the animals on my family's farm, we'd probably be making three times as much profit. 

"I'm Linc, by the way." He said as he brought the camera back up to his face. He wanted to reach out and shake her hand, but the quiver on his lip stayed as he thought about his family's farm. How long had it been since? He'd lost track of the days.

Zoe shrugged. She had had trouble telling the zebras apart at first, but it had grown easier over time. ”Of course they do. You don't know what to look for in terms of differences between them.”

He really thought that his family's farm would make more money if she was there? Smiling, Zoe shook her head. ”I doubt if be much help,” she replied. ”I've never really spent time with farm animals.”

Zoe smiled wider when the man finally introduced himself. ”I'm Zoe. Nice to meet you.”

Linc put down the camera then smiled back at her. He closed his eyes again and breathed slowly. 

Think neutral thoughts, Linc. Name the emotion and let it go. Let it be. He didn't try to hide his silence now. This happened more often than he wanted it to, lately. The smallest things would catch him off guard and he'd have to self-regulate. Yesterday, he had run out of coffee, and he almost got mad at himself, but he gave himself a chance to breathe and walk out to the nearest cafe. Luckily his job allowed him to leave whenever he wanted, but even then, he couldn't keep walking out whenever he started feeling his cheeks flush or his chest palpitate.

Linc looked at Zoe in his peripheral vision. He remembered why he had decided long ago to keep all his relationships professional and work related, just so he could avoid personal topics, like those surrounding his family. This morning, he had made an exception, which was so unlike him now that he had started to really think about it.

He missed having friends. He couldn't avoid that fact.

He rested his head on the rail in front of him, and tried even harder to cleanse his mind. He counted down from ten. Then he looked up before doing it again, just in time to see one of the zebras topple over in his exhibit.

"Zoe, do you see that? Jami right? Is she ok?"