“Give me a M! Give me an O! Give me a N-K-E-Y-S!” Moxie cheers, jumping up and down in front of the zoo’s Barrel of Monkeys Exhibit. “What’s that spell? Monkeys! Monkeys! I LOVE MONKEYS.”
Global Girl grabs Moxie by the arm and pulls her away from the fence, hurrying her on to the next set of animals that await them further down the path.
“Focus,” she says to her. “The zoo is closing soon, and I promised IQ we would see the orangutans.”
“Orangutans!” Moxie says. “That’s like a big orange monkey, I’m in!”
“Actually,” IQ says, coming up alongside them, “Sumatran orangutans, like chimpanzees, are members of the great ape family, which aren’t monkeys at all.”
Moxie and Global Girl give each other an understanding look over his head, neither one of them a stranger to his informative interruptions. They grab IQ’s hands and hurry together down the path, circling around the reptile house and pushing through the crowds of people waiting patiently in front of a pink and yellow pushcart for their turn to buy a frozen banana.
“Bananas!” Moxie squeals. “Give me a B! Give me a—”
“Moxie!” IQ and Global Girl shout.
“So-rry,” she sings, dancing away with a twirl.
Further down the trail, past the baboons and the tamarinds, they find a low, brown building with a rain forest scene painted along its side. Among the green and yellow leaves of the mural, they spy a familiar orange face that sends them rushing through the entrance and into a dark, cool room. On the far side, a glass viewing window stretches from wall to wall, presenting a crystal-clear view of the small, contained forest that the zoo has built out of upright logs and hanging ropes.
“Wow,” they say at the same time, taking it all in.
They scan the area for any sign of an orangutan, but there are so many crossing nets for climbing and hanging baskets for sleeping that it is hard to find them.
“Where are they?” Global Girl asks. “Are they hiding?”
“Maybe they are sad because Moxie called them monkeys,” IQ offers.
“I’m sorry I called you monkeys,” Moxie whines at the glass. “Please come out!”
Suddenly, an orange blur catches their eye, erupting from the corner and swinging down to the ground from the highest rope.
“Look, there they are!”
A big orangutan with a round face approaches the glass, watching them with warm, intelligent eyes.
“That’s the boy orangutan,” IQ says, reading from a sign down at his feet. “You can tell by his big, padded cheeks.”
“Oh, look!” Moxie says, as another one comes into view—a mother with an additional, tiny orangutan clinging to her belly. “It’s a BABY!”
The three of them watch as the orangutan family goes about their business of grooming and eating, the little one even dropping down to make a clumsy attempt at walking.
“Aren’t they great, IQ?” Global Girl asks, turning to find that only Moxie remains at her side. “IQ?”
She finds him in the back corner of the room between two tall photographs, one of a lush rain forest—the orangutan’s natural habitat—and the other of a section of forest after all the trees had been cut down and harvested, leaving nothing behind but an empty field with black, lifeless stumps.
“You’re the only person I know who would rather read about something than watch it in action,” she says. “What’s so interesting?”
“Look what it says here” he says as Moxie joins them.
“Critically endangered?” she asks. “What does that mean?”
“It means they are in danger of becoming extinct in the wild,” IQ says, gesturing toward the before and after pictures of the rain forest. “The rain forests they live in are being cut down; soon they’ll have nowhere left to go.”
“What!?” Moxie says, running back to the viewing window where the baby orangutan was pulling on a hanging rope. “You mean all the orangutans will be gone? How could people let that happen? We need to do something.”
“You’re right, Moxie,” Global Girl says. “But what can we do? The problem is so much bigger than us.”
The three of them grow quiet, trying to think of a way that they can make a difference. IQ studies the orangutan in the enclosure, watching as the baby does a somersault and throws up its hands, giving him an idea.
“That’s it. We can use our Talents,” he says. “We can put on a show about orangutans to help raise money for the people who are out there working hard to save them!”
“Talents?” Moxie asks.
“Yeah, like you can do one of your cheers, Moxie! I can do the research to find out more about orangutans and the rain forest, and Global Girl can help us organize the event!”
“That’s a great idea,” Global Girl says. “If we work together, our combined Talents can really make a difference.”
“Give me an O,” Moxie yells, jumping to her feet and spelling out the letters with her arms. “Give me a R!”
On the other side of the glass, the baby orangutan watches, mimicking her movements.
