Peter's Worry

It was a beautiful sunny day and they were off to the zoo. Mother packed a nice picnic lunch and little Peter was very excited to see the unusual animals. Mother was not a big fan of caged animals. She found it depressing actually but that it might be a good experience for little Peter to see up close and in person these creatures.

And indeed Peter was struck with awe at the giraffe with his long neck, big body and small head reaching high up into the tree. And the elephant who moved so slowly but shook the earth with a footstep. His long snake-like nose and big floppy ears. And then there were the gorillas a family of three. A mother, a father and a baby. They were so human-like it made a huge impression on Peter. And they were in a small caged area. They looked so sad with people staring at them all day everyday and couldn't go anywhere. His mother did gave a little nervous laugh but not like anything was actually funny at how much her brother Henry looked like a gorilla. Peter too saw the resemblance. It was uncanny.

The impressions from the zoo stayed with Peter for days. He had was mixed feelings. He felt badly about seeing them caged and the poor elephant was actually chained by his leg. But the gorillas were the worst. Being caged up in a small area with people staring at them all day everyday. What a miserable life. He couldn't even look at Uncle Henry without cringing thinking someone might come and put him in the zoo.

A few days later Peter's mother became very exasperated with Peter's behavior. He was being disruptive and wouldn't listen to her telling him to quiet down and stop causing a disturbance at dinner.

They were all sitting together for evening meal and Peter complained about his dinner, "I hate liver and onions!"

His mother tried to explain to him that it was good for him, "Peter this is calves' liver. And is very healthy. It has a lot of iron."

"He looked down at the brown lump of flesh on his plate. He could see small veins running through it. "I don't want it. I won't eat this!"

His father and sister looked at him disapprovingly.

Peter exclaimed, "I can't eat this. It's awful. It makes me sick to even look at it," pushed the plate to the center of the table, stood up and stomped out of the room entered his bedroom and slammed the door.

His mother followed him and knocked on the door.

"Go away! Leave me alone!"

She opened the door and tried to calm him down. "If you are not hungry then don't eat. It's okay. But this kind of outburst and display is not acceptable, Peter. You have upset everyone else."

"Leave me alone. Go away!"

"Peter if you act like this we might have to take you to the zoo and leave you with the gorillas. You can just eat bananas," and with that she left the room being frustrated with Peter's tantrum.

Peter did not come out of his room. Without eating anything he fell into a deep sleep and had a dream. That indeed she had taken him to the zoo and put him the cage with the gorillas. He woke up in a cold sweat screaming, "No! No!"

His mother came running to his room, hugging him telling him everything was alright.

"Don't put me with the gorillas!"

She promised, I would never ever do that, "If you don't want to eat liver and onions that's alright you don't have to. I will make something else for you. Maybe macaroni and cheese."

Thinking about the caged animals he then began to also think about slaughtered animals. The calf whose liver had been on a plate before him. He could understand how much animals suffer at the hands of people. He felt so badly for the elephant chained by the leg like a criminal and the gorillas who looked so much like Uncle Henry.

Peter decided right then and there that he would not eat any meat ever again.

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