The Hum Before Dinner

Frida was fifteen, and she hated waiting.

She hated slow phones. She hated slow friends. Most of all, she hated the lift at Hillside Zoo.

The zoo was small. It sat on a hill, and it had three levels. The kitchen was at the bottom. The lemur garden was at the top. Between them was one old lift for food carts.

The lift took four whole minutes to go up. It made a low, sleepy hum all the way. Nothing else in the zoo moved so slowly.

Frida came every Saturday to help. Her job was to wash buckets. She washed forty buckets each week. Then she stood by the lift and watched the numbers crawl.

Dina, the head keeper, wore big boots and a green cap. She had a calm voice. She never ran, and she never shouted.

One Saturday, Frida could not wait any more.

"Dina, please fix this lift," she said. "It is so slow. My wish is a fast lift."

Dina laughed. "You wish for a lot of things."

"My second wish is to feed the animals," said Frida. "I am tired of buckets."

"One wish at a time," Dina said. "I will call the repair man. We will talk about the feeding later."

On Monday, the repair man came with a heavy bag. He worked all day. He changed a part and oiled a wheel. By evening, the old lift was ready.

The next Saturday, Frida ran into the kitchen. The lift stood open and shiny. She pushed the food cart inside and pressed the button.

Whoosh! The lift flew up. It took only forty seconds.

"Yes!" Frida shouted. "At last!"

The doors opened at the top. Dina stood there with a smile. Frida pushed the cart into the lemur garden and looked around.

The garden was empty.

There were no lemurs at the fence. There were no black and white tails on the rocks. The grapes sat in the bowls, and nobody came.

"Where are they?" Frida asked.

"Let us wait," said Dina.

They waited five minutes. Nothing moved. Then Frida saw them. The lemurs sat high in the big tree. They stayed far from the food.

The youngest one was Biscuit. He looked down at the cart and made a small, worried noise. Then he looked at the lift.

"Are they sick?" Frida asked.

"No," said Dina. "They are confused."

"Why?"

Dina sat on a box by the gate. "Tell me about the old lift," she said. "What did it do?"

"It was slow," Frida said. "It hummed."

"And what did the lemurs do when it hummed?"

Frida opened her mouth. Then she closed it again. She remembered the old Saturdays. First the hum began. Then, one by one, the lemurs came down from the trees. By the time the lift arrived, they all sat at the fence. They waited like a small, hungry crowd.

"The hum was a bell," Frida said slowly. "The hum told them: dinner is coming."

"And the four minutes gave them time to come," Dina said.

Frida looked at the shiny lift. It was quiet now. It had no hum and no warning. Food just appeared, and the lemurs did not trust it.

"I made it worse," she said.

"You made it faster," Dina said. "That is not the same."

Frida felt her stomach go cold. "Can the repair man put the old part back?"

"He kept it in his van. But he cannot come until Monday."

"Then what do we do today?"

Dina shrugged. "You tell me. You wanted to feed the animals."

Frida looked at the tree. Biscuit looked back at her. His hungry eyes went from the grapes to the lift.

She thought for a long time. Then she walked to the gate and stood very still. She took a slow breath.

Then she began to hum.

It was a low note, deep in her chest. It was not pretty. It was not a song. It was only a long, sleepy sound, just like the old lift.

Nothing happened for one minute. Her face felt silly. She kept humming.

After two minutes, a branch moved. A lemur climbed down and sat on a rock.

After three minutes, there were four of them. They watched her with their orange eyes. Their tails curled over their backs like question marks.

Frida wanted to stop. Her throat was dry. She wanted to run and put the grapes down. But she remembered Dina's calm voice. So she took another breath and hummed on.

After four minutes, the whole group sat at the fence. Biscuit came last. He walked along the wall, and he stopped at her feet.

Frida stopped humming. Her heart beat fast. Slowly, she put a grape in the little hand.

Dina stood up and put a bucket in Frida's arms. "That is your wish, then," she said. "Every Saturday at four o'clock. Do not be late."

"But on Monday the old lift will come back," Frida said.

"Yes. And on Monday, you can ride it with me." Dina smiled. "But today, somebody had to be the lift."

Frida laughed. She turned back to the fence, where forty bright eyes watched her. She gave out the grapes one at a time.

"Mmm," she hummed, and waited for the next one.