Savannah Tour: Chapter 9

Sasha, June 3rd, 8:54PM

“Delta. Why isn’t his brother here? Should we look for him?” I asked.

“No,” Delta replied, and I stared at her. “Not yet, at least,” she amended quickly. “We must follow Mr. Ortega back to the savannah. It’s our last chance.”

“Got it. Let’s go home. It’s getting dark.”

We headed to the savannah, admiring the glimmering stars in the sky.

Trekking the desert, we reached the fence enclosing the Wild Savannah in only a few hours, fatigue settling over the both of us.

“Well, we’re not finding him here,” Delta muttered under her breath, looking up the blanket of stars hanging in the night sky.

“Let’s go home. We need rest. I usually sleep at 9:00 pm.”

Delta nodded. “How far away is it?”

“Uh... I was following you. I thought you knew where we were. Also, I don’t have the map.”

Delta looked down and pulled a compass out of “My house is two miles west.” Just as she finished that sentence, the sign ‘Wild Savannah Resort – HIRING NOW!’ seemingly appeared out of nowhere and I nearly walked into it. “Alright. We’re here. Should we look for Mr. Ortega’s brother or go home?” she asked.

“How about if we go home and sleep, then come back and look?”

“Sounds great,” Delta replied. “See you tomorrow, then.”

“Yep,” I said as I pranced toward the exit with Delta following me.

**. . . (1 day later)**

The next morning, I dashed to Delta’s house. We had a big day coming. I pounded on the door hard.

“What?” Delta said with a tired tone. “Oh. Right. Let’s go!” She put on boots and started jogging towards the resort.

When we got there, I was tired. The savannah was about 2 and a half miles away! We kept running without stopping. “Now let’s go.” I said breathlessly.

Delta stopped to catch her breath before replying. “Yep. Let’s go.” She skipped towards the resort’s fence, jumped it, then kept running, faster than I could ever go.

“Wait!” I called, clumsily hopping over the fence and sprinting after her. She slowed just a little and I finally reached her. She turned backwards to look at me, then almost slammed into the Wild Savannah sign. She halted so suddenly that I nearly ran over her. She leapt out of the way with a yelp as I hurtled past her and slammed into the hard-packed earth.

“Ow.” I groaned. I spotted Mr. Ortega chatting with a new tourist. “Hey, who is he Delta?”

“You okay?” Delta asked, helping me up. Then she turned her attention from me to the tourist. “I... don’t know. Let’s go check it out.”

“I’m fine.” I answered as he went just outside of Mr. Ortega’s office and strained to hear what they were saying.

Delta moved closer warily, trying to overhear them as well. No, that couldn’t be right. Mr. Ortega was crying. Delta darted forward suddenly and then, moments later, sprung backwards. “Sasha,” she hissed. “I think we found Mr. Ortega’s brother.”

“No way. Wow! Oh, my goodness. What are they doing?” I asked.

“Talking. And... crying,” Delta murmured, her gaze fixated on the office window. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“I mean, any actions? Hugging, arguing or something like that?”

“Um... I can’t really see,” she replied with a deep frown. “I’m going in.” Her hand snaked out, twisting the doorknob and letting the door swing inwards by itself.

“You cut down tree?” his brother nearly shouted, slamming his palms down on the table.

“I stopped,” Mr. Ortega said smoothly.

I followed Delta inside.

“But you were–” his brother broke off when he saw the two of us. “Oh, hello. Meet this one?” He said quietly, gesturing to Mr. Ortega.

Delta cleared her throat. “Um. Yes, we have.” Her eyes were wide, and her mouth hung open. “Mr... Ortega, is this your brother?”

Mr. Ortega swiftly grabbed a handkerchief and wiped his eyes. “Uh. Yes. This is my brother. And... I have something to tell you both.” He paused. “You know, um...” he coughed. “I just wanted to say that... I am your father.”

Me and Delta stared at him blankly for a moment, then Delta managed to get out, “Excuse me?”

“Just to make sure, both of us, right? Are me and Delta sisters? Twin sisters?” I asked nervously and shocked.

“Yes,” he said with a light, breathy laugh. “Um... um... Delta is older.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Delta snapped, her voice cracking. “What matters is that you lied to us our whole lives! You kept this huge secret from us our *whole lives!* And now you’re acting like it doesn’t *matter?* You’re just laughing it off, pretending it’s not a huge deal!”

“I... I don’t know how I feel right now. If we are twins, then why aren't we alike?

“Because you’re not identical. It just so happened,” Mr. Ortega responded.

“What... what about our mother?” I asked.

“She died of cancer,” he mumbled.

“Oh. How did you feel when that happened?”

“What do you think?” he asked sharply. “I was sad.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Did you think of getting another wife?”

“No,” he answered stiffly, now sitting tensely. “Please stop asking questions. Just get back to work.”

“But...” Delta started protesting, but Mr. Ortega’s brother shot us a look and we quickly fled out the door.

“Wow. I can’t believe we are sisters. I can’t believe that happened.” I murmured.

“Very shocking,” Delta answered slowly with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“So, Delta. What should we do?”

“Get back to work, I guess,” Delta said, rolling her eyes.

“Aren’t we fired? If yes, we can’t go back to work!”

“I... don’t think so. At least, not yet, anyway,” Delta mumbled, just as another worker called out to us.

“Delta? Is that you?” the employee asked. She ran over to us, beaming.

“Uh... yes?” she answered.

“I thought you were fired, or you quit! But then Mr. Ortega sent out search parties for you and I knew something was wrong. Glad to see you back.”

“Thanks... um, Bella,” Delta replied uncertainly. The girl skipped away.

Delta cleared her throat. “Anyways,” she said, “we should probably start working again.” She ran towards her Wagon Ride station and opened the gate.

“Anyone want a Wild Savannah Wagon Ride? Elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, anything you could ever see here!” she yelled. I got the sense that she’d memorized that phrase. I walked towards my station.

“Does anyone want to view some really cool animals?” I shouted. “Anything from... from aardvarks to zebras!” Then I broke off and looked at Delta. “Are you sure we didn’t get fired?”

“I’m sure, Sasha. Mr. Ortega said to go back to work, so we are!”

“Let’s make sure!” I shouted as I dashed to Mr. Ortega’s office and opened the ugly wooden door.

“Mr. Ortega! Are we fired?”

He wasn’t there.

I ran back to Delta. “Mr. Ortega isn’t there!” I shouted.

“Call the police!” Delta yelled, her eyes wide. “Or just look! He might’ve just moved.”

“Moved where? Where else would he be?” I asked.

“Just look!” Delta shouted. A tourist walked up to her. “I’m a bit busy!”

I looked everywhere. Near the snack shacks, in the gift shops, near the animals, in the desert, but he was nowhere to be seen.

As I turned around to look for Delta, she was shouting at a tourist, tears running down her face.

I walked up to them.

“Hey, what's going on? Did you hurt Delta’s feelings?!”

“Where is the manager? You can’t work without there being a manager! You don’t have a job!” the tourist shouted.

“Listen, okay? I do have a job! Our manager is taking a break! We’re trying to *find them!* Maybe *you* should try and *help*!”

“We’re going to look for him, and you’re coming with us no matter what!” I shouted.

“No, I’m not!” the tourist yelled, and then he stormed off.

“Alright, so... it’s just us!” Delta muttered.