ZV

Suzy did her best to keep up with her father, as he hiked along the tropical trail. It was not an easy hike for a small ten year old girl, with the large green leaves constantly smacking her in the face as she hiked. This was the first time that her father had brought her along on one of his hikes and she wanted nothing more than to please her father and show him that she could hike as well as any boy.

Her legs were very tired and sore, they had been hiking for close to an hour and the climb was becoming more difficult as the trail seemed to become more and more vertical. Suzy looked up and could barely see the back of her father as he easily walked ahead of her. She tripped on a protruding root and landed face down on the packed dirt trail. As she pushed herself up to her feet, her father was there and extended his hand to her.

“Come on Butterfly, we are almost to the top.”

Her father had always called her Butterfly and she asked him once when she was six years old why he did. He told her that it was because she was always fluttering around and because she was so beautiful. Suzy remembered this as they reached the top of the mountain. Her father picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. She gasped in amazement as she saw the gorgeous view, she felt like she could see the entire world.

“Do you ever come up here and play your violin, daddy?”

He shook his head as she sat on his shoulders, “no, Butterfly, but that is an excellent idea.”

After sitting on her father’s shoulders for quite a while, he brought her down and put her on the ground next to him. They both took off their back packs and ate a short snack.

“Listen Butterfly,” her father started as he finished his snack. “I want you to stay here while I take a quick climb to the top of that rock”

He pointed to a steep rock formation that jutted out of the tropical forest.

“I want to go with you,” replied Suzy as she swallowed a bite of food.

“Not this time,” her father responded as he rubbed the top of her head. “It’s too dangerous for you, I won’t be gone long and you will be able to see me the entire time.”

Suzy nodded as she took another bite and watched her father continue along the trail towards the large, protruding rock.

He had been right, she could see him easily as he reached the stone and started climbing. She watched and snacked as he climbed and she thought it was funny how small her father looked as he climbed. Soon, her father was on the point of the protruding rock, stood tall and waved at her. She waved back with a huge smile on her face.

Suddenly there was a noise behind her, she turned around and saw a large black snake with dark blue markings on its sides; it was a type of snake she had never seen before. It slithered towards her and before she could back away, it coiled back and struck her, biting her on the right shin, just below the knee. Suzy screamed as the snake sunk its fangs into her leg.

He father called to her and then quickly started scampering down the rock. Suzy grabbed her backpack and started hitting the snake. After three hits, the eight foot long snake released its hold and slithered off into the nearby plants. By the time her father arrived, there was no sign of the snake except for the two puncture holes in Suzy’s right leg.

Her father quickly looked in the nearby bushes and plants for the snake, but when he couldn’t find it, he picked up Suzy and ran down the trail.

Suzy was now fourteen years old as she and her father sat on the back of the large boat bobbing up and down on the ocean. Her mother came up and handed each of them a soda, before she sat down on the other side of Suzy.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go scuba diving with me?” Her father asked as he put the large black flippers on his feet.

Suzy shook her head as her mother responded, “We will just watch you, sweetheart. We are are just happy to be out here with you.”

Her father nodded as he got up and carefully walked towards the back of the boat. There were six people all dressed in wet suits and ready to go scuba diving. It looked to Suzy like there were four men and two women. She watched as they all had tanks placed on their backs, and the man in charge checked to ensure everything was working. Soon the six divers were in the water and the ship’s captain invited Suzy and her mother to move up to the next level of the ship, where they would have a better view of the scuba divers.

The captain was right, the view was amazing and with the crystal clear water, it was easy to see each diver. Her mother pointed out the under water figure that was her father, and Suzy watched in amazement as her father swam with the tank on his back.

Suddenly, a bell started ringing and a man above was yelling, “Shark!”

Suzy looked around and sure enough, she could see what looked like a great white shark headed straight for the scuba divers, including her father. It was clear that the message was not getting to the divers, as they continued their swim away from the boat, as they explored under the water. The shark was not swimming at full speed, but it did continue towards the divers.

Suddenly it became clear that one of the divers had seen the shark and alerted the other swimmers. All six divers turned around and swam as fast as they could towards the boat. Suzy could see that her father was the furthest away from the boat and therefore, the closest to the shark.

Suzy saw that with the retreating swimmers the shark had become excited and was now moving quickly towards her father. She stood up and ran over to the railing, cupping her hands to her mouth she shouted, “stop, turn around!”

Too the amazement of everyone watching, the shark stopped chasing the swimmers, turned around and swam back out into the ocean, away from the boat and the scuba divers.

The six swimmers were all in a panick as they quickly climbed onto the boat and then help pull everyone on board. Once all were safely onboard they took off their face masks and looked around for the shark. There was no sign of it. Suzy’s father removed the tank from his back and looked up at the second level of the ship. There he saw his wife giving a tight hug to his little Butterfly and several people were gathering around her. A smile formed on his wet face, she had done it, his little Butterfly had saved them all from the shark.

He remembered the day in the hospital four years ago, the doctors had checked her over and over again. They could see the snake bite on her leg, but there was no swelling, no shortness of breath and no other effects that normally come with a snake bite. They placed monitors on her little body and took blood samples, but everything was normal. They gave her some antibiotics, just to be safe, but they could find nothing wrong with her.

Three days after she had been bitten by the snake, he was watching her play in the back yard. A small bird landed on the fence that surrounds their yard and he saw Suzy look at it. Suddenly, the bird left the top of the fence and landed on Suzy’s knee. She spoke to it softly and then rubbed the top of the birds head with her tiny fingers. When he went out to get a closer look, the bird flew away. He asked her what had happened and she told him that she asked the bird to come to her and it did.

As time passed, Suzy had realized she could control animals. At first she always spoke out loud to the animals, but as she grew, she learned she could also do it by just thinking about it, with concentration. He had been amazed by this new ability of his young daughter, but both he and his wife had encouraged her to keep it a secret from others.

Now, as he climbed the stairs to the second level of the ship, he saw that his wife was passing it off as a coincidence and Suzy was not saying anything. He was surprised when he learned that she had yelled out at the shark, she must have been worried for his life. He walked up to his wife and daughter and gave them both a hug at the same time.

“It must have scared her to see that we were about to be attack by a huge shark. Please give us some room,” he requested as the others nodded and started backing away.

A few minutes later, the three of them were alone on the second level. No one seemed to want to go back into the water, so the crew was preparing to head back to land.

Suzy’s father leaned in close so that only the three of them could hear him, “thank you for saving my life.”

Suzy looked at him with sadness in her eyes and whispered, “ you are not upset with me for showing my power?”

He shook his head and gave her another hug, “no, my precious butterfly, you were wise to use it when you did. But next time, try to remember to only use your mind.”

She returned the hug and nodded her head, “yes, father, I will be better at using my mind only and not my mouth.”

Suzy and her parents watched from the second level of the ship, as the ship slowly came into the dock. Before they went down the stairs to disembark from the ship, her father whispered in her ear, “I will still call you my Butterfly, but I will also call you the Zoological Virtuoso,” you are the master of the animals.”

Suzy smiled as she carefully stepped down the stairs. She thought to herself, “Zoological Virtuoso sounds cool, but it’s too wordy, I am Z.V.”

The three of them left the ship and walked up the dock to their car. Suzy climbed into the back seat of the car as her parents sat in the front seats and fastened their seatbelts. As she put on her own safety belt, Suzy spoke out loud so her parents could hear her, “the Zoological Virtuoso, or Z.V., from now on, will only use her mind to control the animals; that way no one will ever know it is me that controls them.”

Her father started the car and they all smiled as he drove away, heading back to their home in Hong Kong.