Solving Zoe Read Online Free PDF Page A

named Willie, a Hubbard first grader) and three ex-wives. But he was worried about his elderly mother in Arizona. He needed to visit her for a little while, and he needed someone to look after his lizards. All you had to do was feed them and write down what they ate. And, also, if you felt so inclined, maybe jot down a few notes about their behavior….
    â€œYou mean me? ” Zoe asked, finally understanding what her father was saying.
    â€œSure. Why not you, Zozo?”
    It sounded as obvious as when Isaac had asked, Why not lizards?
    â€œBecause, Dad! They’re so slimy! And the ones that aren’t slimy have these weird spiny things—”
    â€œWho said anything about touching them?”
    â€œBesides,” Zoe argued, “what do I know about lizards?”
    Dad squeezed her shoulder. “You don’t need to know anything, Zoe. You just need to be willing to learn. After all those years at Hubbard, are you so afraid to open up your brain and use it a little?”
    She stared at him. He’d never spoken that way to her before. “Of course not,” she said, a bit offended.
    And so Dad made all the arrangements. Isaac gave her a key and a key chain he’d sculpted out of wire. There was a funny shape dangling on the end of it, which, Zoe realized with pride, was a letter Z . And every afternoon immediately after school, or on the weekend, she was to go to Isaac’s brownstone, feed the thirty-two reptiles, record what they ate and drank, and then take a few notes if, as Isaac had put it, “the spirit moved her.”
    It was a little scary at first, especially because it turned out that Dad had another Enchanted Forest job to finish up first, and wouldn’t be starting Isaac’s lizard rooms for at least a few days. So the first time Zoe went to Isaac’s, she made Dara come with her. But Dara was too grossed out after five minutes in the iguana room, and fled downstairs to hang out with the giant Brillo pads until Zoe was finished.
    Today was Zoe’s second day. She let herself into the brownstone with her special key and carefully fed the lizards exactly the way Isaac had taught her. It was hard to record their food consumption with the kind of precision he expected, but she did her best. “Iguana #2: 3 1/2 crickets,” she wrote in her neatest handwriting. Then she tiptoed around the three bedrooms, stopping every once in a while to record her observations:
    Baby golden gecko hid in leaves, but peeked out once I misted. Seems to like mushy bananas—ate 2 tsps.
    Newt #2 sat on rock. Bobbed head three times and stared.
    Green anole palish green, but sometimes brown. Or brown-green. (Or maybe it’s green-brown. I don’t know what you call it.)
    She crossed the last part out, then watched the smallish lizard carefully explore the walls of the glass terrarium. Anole, she repeated to herself. Anole. Backward that’s Elona, which is actually a beautiful name. Is it any different from Lorna? Oh, of course it is; E, not R. Funny how one letter totally changes everything.
    The house was very still, very quiet. Almost like a kind of lizard lab. Or a peaceful reptile paradise. Suddenly the phone rang.
    She ran down the stairs to Isaac’s spotless white-tiled kitchen and answered the only phone he had, the ancient kind with a rotary dial. “Hello?”
    â€œWho is this?” a woman’s voice shouted. Zoe could hear street noises in the background; the caller was clearly on a cell.
    â€œIt’s Zoe Bennett. I’m helping Isaac. May I ask who’s calling, please?”
    â€œDeb. Where is he?”
    â€œUm, I believe it’s Arizona.”
    â€œI bet,” Deb said. Then the line went dead.
    Zoe hung up the phone, wondering if she should have told Deb about Arizona. Well, too late now.
    Then she picked up the phone again and called Dara’s apartment, but there was no answer. And she didn’t want to leave a