Hannah's Dream Read Online Free
Author: Diane Hammond
great delicacy.
“You see that?” he crowed. “You see her take that right out of my hand? She likes me, I bet.” Still, he hurried back to his place on Sam’s far side. “Where are you going now?”
“Just around. No place in particular. Does her good to just meander.”
“Reginald!” A shrill female voice called out from behind them on the path. “Lord, boy, you scared me half to death wandering off like that.”
“That your mama?” Sam asked.
“Nah, she’s my aunt. I live with her.”
“Where’s your mama, son?”
The boy shrugged.
“All right, go on. Don’t make her chase you, now.”
Reginald started off, turned back. “I’ll see you, mister.”
“Yeah, I expect you will. Next time you come here, you ask for Sam Brown. Just tell them you’re a friend of mine and they’ll let you in to see me.”
As he and Hannah moved on, Sam could hear the boy calling excitedly to his aunt, “Hey, I fed that elephant. I fed her right off my hand!”
Sam reached up and patted Hannah’s shoulder. “You were real good with that boy, sugar. That was a nice thing you did for him.”
When they got back to the barn, he found a voicemail message waiting in the tiny office where he kept food and medical records. It was from Harriet Saul, the zoo’s director. Her message said, “Sam, please remember Neva Wilson will be here tomorrow morning. Do you have her uniforms and key? If not, I’ll have Truman bring them down.”
Sam sighed. He’d had so many keepers teamed up with him over the years, he didn’t even bother keeping track of them anymore. They were either earnest know-nothings or gone to seed. This Neva Wilson would be the first woman, though, and he wondered how that was going to work out. He didn’t know if Hannah would like a girl much. Truman Levy, the zoo’s business manager and Harriet’s right-hand man, had told Sam she’d been impressive at her interview, but Sam wasn’t setting any store by it. He and Hannah would just have to see.
chapter 2
I n her negotiations with the City of Bladenham, Max Biedelman had arranged for an exemption to the normal burial regulations that required all human remains to be interred in one of two small cemeteries on the outskirts of town. Instead, she was given a variance to be buried on her own property, beside Hannah’s little elephant barn. The site was identified only by a discreet brass plaque on the barn’s north wall: MAX L . BIEDELMAN , 1873–1958. FOREVER WITH THE ANIMALS SHE LOVED .
There were many days when, if Max Biedelman was watching over her zoo from the hereafter, she’d be appalled. Most of the exquisite landscaping had been replaced by asphalt and concrete. Nocturnal animals like the slow loruses, difficult to see by daytime visitors, were no longer replaced when they died. One by one their areas were converted into snack or trinket kiosks.When the last zebra succumbed to hoof-and-mouth disease, the zebra yard had been turned into a petting zoo of common goats, sheep, and a large, bad-tempered sow named Hilda. By 1995, what had once been one of the country’s foremost private exotic animal collections had become a seedy third-rate zoo.
Harriet Saul had been hired five months earlier to change all that. In middle age she was stocky, shrewd, and focused: fifty-two years of plainness had tempered her like hand-forged steel. She knew by then that it was her lot to fall in love with institutions instead of men. Her previous love affairs had been with a regional science museum, a library system, and a dairy cooperative. Now, when she closed her eyes at night, she dreamt about the barns and huts and pavilions of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo.
The zoo’s offices were on the ground floor of Havenside, the old Biedelman mansion, long past its glory days. Bladenham was not a city with money to spare for beautification unless it was backed by local business interests. The zoo, though a venerable institution in the minds of the town council,
“You see that?” he crowed. “You see her take that right out of my hand? She likes me, I bet.” Still, he hurried back to his place on Sam’s far side. “Where are you going now?”
“Just around. No place in particular. Does her good to just meander.”
“Reginald!” A shrill female voice called out from behind them on the path. “Lord, boy, you scared me half to death wandering off like that.”
“That your mama?” Sam asked.
“Nah, she’s my aunt. I live with her.”
“Where’s your mama, son?”
The boy shrugged.
“All right, go on. Don’t make her chase you, now.”
Reginald started off, turned back. “I’ll see you, mister.”
“Yeah, I expect you will. Next time you come here, you ask for Sam Brown. Just tell them you’re a friend of mine and they’ll let you in to see me.”
As he and Hannah moved on, Sam could hear the boy calling excitedly to his aunt, “Hey, I fed that elephant. I fed her right off my hand!”
Sam reached up and patted Hannah’s shoulder. “You were real good with that boy, sugar. That was a nice thing you did for him.”
When they got back to the barn, he found a voicemail message waiting in the tiny office where he kept food and medical records. It was from Harriet Saul, the zoo’s director. Her message said, “Sam, please remember Neva Wilson will be here tomorrow morning. Do you have her uniforms and key? If not, I’ll have Truman bring them down.”
Sam sighed. He’d had so many keepers teamed up with him over the years, he didn’t even bother keeping track of them anymore. They were either earnest know-nothings or gone to seed. This Neva Wilson would be the first woman, though, and he wondered how that was going to work out. He didn’t know if Hannah would like a girl much. Truman Levy, the zoo’s business manager and Harriet’s right-hand man, had told Sam she’d been impressive at her interview, but Sam wasn’t setting any store by it. He and Hannah would just have to see.
chapter 2
I n her negotiations with the City of Bladenham, Max Biedelman had arranged for an exemption to the normal burial regulations that required all human remains to be interred in one of two small cemeteries on the outskirts of town. Instead, she was given a variance to be buried on her own property, beside Hannah’s little elephant barn. The site was identified only by a discreet brass plaque on the barn’s north wall: MAX L . BIEDELMAN , 1873–1958. FOREVER WITH THE ANIMALS SHE LOVED .
There were many days when, if Max Biedelman was watching over her zoo from the hereafter, she’d be appalled. Most of the exquisite landscaping had been replaced by asphalt and concrete. Nocturnal animals like the slow loruses, difficult to see by daytime visitors, were no longer replaced when they died. One by one their areas were converted into snack or trinket kiosks.When the last zebra succumbed to hoof-and-mouth disease, the zebra yard had been turned into a petting zoo of common goats, sheep, and a large, bad-tempered sow named Hilda. By 1995, what had once been one of the country’s foremost private exotic animal collections had become a seedy third-rate zoo.
Harriet Saul had been hired five months earlier to change all that. In middle age she was stocky, shrewd, and focused: fifty-two years of plainness had tempered her like hand-forged steel. She knew by then that it was her lot to fall in love with institutions instead of men. Her previous love affairs had been with a regional science museum, a library system, and a dairy cooperative. Now, when she closed her eyes at night, she dreamt about the barns and huts and pavilions of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo.
The zoo’s offices were on the ground floor of Havenside, the old Biedelman mansion, long past its glory days. Bladenham was not a city with money to spare for beautification unless it was backed by local business interests. The zoo, though a venerable institution in the minds of the town council,
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