It's a little weird how everytime I walk past that penguin habitat that I feel its eyes burning in the back of my head. Well, I really can't really say 'it' now can I unless I want animal lovers to flip my car over. Its a he, alright? He's that penguin that's afraid of needles, if I remember correctly. His name on file is Skipper.
I always catch him staring at me when I walk past. And I find it creepy. I know, I know, animals stare at things. But not how he stares in my direction. I see something undefined in his eyes. Something I can't decipher. I had always been able to read people and I feel frustration build inside of me at my doubt.

You'd think I'd hate him for that. You might be surprised that I actually don't. Not like I hated him before. I've seen more of those penguins than you'd believe. And everytime I see Skipper, I like him a little more. First, I noticed that he had blue eyes, which was really surprising for me since I didn't even know penguins could even HAVE irises. And very nice irises to be precise.

Next, I noticed emotions. Lots of emotions. Anger, joy, stress, distress. I found myself remembering to feed the penguins daily just so I could get a closer look. But after a while, he would stare directly into my eyes with a look I could only describe as suspicious. He couldn't blame me for being so interested. His reaction to things were human-like. Too human-like.

I had actually taken interest into some 'dumb' animal. But he couldn't really be dumb anymore. Or his friends, but Skipper was probably the most interesting to me. Interesting. That word had an unfamiliar ring in my head. I never really found anything at work to be even mildly interesting or worth while until I started observing that penguin. I started seeing things differently than I did before and you can bet I noticed things that made this job worth all the time I spent here.

Back to that penguin, I didn't really understand why he had that look of hostility and paranoia all the time. Especially after I lightened my constant bored look and uncaring personality. I was actually a bit disappointed by the lack of reaction by him. Then, I finally came to the solution that Skipper had some kind of baggage. Some kind of trusting issue. And its my job to habilitate animals, so I didn't really see a problem with me trying to fix the problem. ASPCA did it all the time, I reasoned.

But I'm pretty sure it didn't work. I'd put food in my hand and tell him to take it but he never did. He'd just stare at me like I was insane. I did it to the other penguins and they took the food, but I guess he wasn't 'buying' it or something.

It all came into perspective when I went into my office one day and was standing at the foot of my office door with a Speak and Spell. I was surprised to say the least.

"How'd you get out of your habitat?!" The penguin just looked at me and pressed a button.

"Who are your affiliates?" The robot voice filled the room.

"My affiliates...? What?" I stared down at the penguin, confusion written on my face.

"Who do you work for?" I heard the robotic voice say.

"My bosses on the higher levels of zoo management," I said plainly. His face twisted in determination.

"Well, you must be trying to brainwashed us. You are too nice now," "I don't have to be brainwashing you to be nice. I was just ignorant before," At this point, I totally deleted the small part of my mind that was freaking out over the penguin using a Speak and Spell. "Not every person who is half decent enough not to treat you like an enemy is untrustworthy, Skipper," His eyes widened in surprise, almost like he wasn't expecting me to know his name. He looked at me, then to the Speak and Spell, then back to me with an undefined look in his eyes.

Before I knew it, I awoke at my desk. I looked around quickly before laughing to myself how obsessed I must've been with that penguin. I stood up and walked to the door to do one last walk around before closing up when I spotted a Speak and Spell button on the floor. It was the letter T. I picked it up and observed it curiously before placing it on my desk.

After that day, Skipper never stared at me with anger in his eyes again. But the look is pretty undefined and I can't understand what exactly was going on behind those eyes.

The stuff you go through as a zookeeper, huh?