The following day, Rebecca and Conrad decided to surprise their two children with a trip to the local petting Zoo, Cuddly R Us, where Alexandr patted everything that had hair. Starla got the chance to feed the baby pandas, and lion cubs. After a while, they bought themselves double scoop ice-creams. Starla picked the struck by strawberry and Alexandr the death by chocolate flavours. Alex dived right in, when they finally found a place to sit, watching over the snake exhibit. "Oww!" He yelled, as he clutched his head with his free hand.

Starla chuckled. "I told you to slow down, now you have brain freeze."

"It's not a cuddly feeling." He noted.

"Well it's not supposed to be."

"Starla, about yesterday..."

"I don't want to talk about it Alex. All I want is to enjoy this ice-cream with you." Starla said, and began to eat the sugar coated cone.

"Well I want too..." he waited for a negative reply, but it never came. "I thought about what you had said yesterday, about your parents and... "

"Yeah, get to the point." She looked at his cone. "Your ice-cream will soon be a river on the floor. It's already running down the cone."

"Thanks." Alex said, then licked the running ice-cream off the cone. "Listen, sis." He started, with a mouth full of melted ice-cream. "Ï know how it felt to be abandoned."

"I thought your mom died and all that."

"That was only the beginning. My dad really thought that a three month old baby couldn't comprehend its natural surroundings." He paused, ate a piece of the cone, and continued. "I remembered how he said to my mother that she was a... a slut..."

"Okay! Stop right there. You can't be serious that you could remember all that at the age of a few months?" Alexandr nodded. "That's supernaturally creepy." Starla stated, as she ate the last piece of her cone.

Alexandr looked at other kids, playing with a donkey, with their parents taking pictures with a black and silver camera. He sighed. "Sis, I'm photogenic, so I can remember the day of my birth accurately."

"That's sick, don't you think?"

He chuckled, with an elephant calf trumpeting in the background. "I actually don't have to be nervous wants my wife gives birth one day. It's a win-win." Starla stood up and grabbed his hand. "Where are we going now?"

"To a place where this awkward moment will end... how your mother gave birth?" she interjected herself, making Alexandr smile.

"Interested are we? She gave birth to me through surgery..."

"Thank goodness!" Starla said, as she pushed through a crowd of people who stood by the horses young.

"But, everything my dad told his sister, was a lie... my mom died by food poisoning because of my dad's murder plan. He came off free charge out of it. They said that she had died of the same thing, when she ate two day old sushi. My mother didn't like sushi."

"Okay, I don't want to hear that anymore." Starla said, while they entered the reptile captivity exhibition.

"Why?"

"The fact that you can remember everything, makes me anxious... wait, if you lied to mom and dad, why did you tell me the truth?" She stopped at the sight of a black cobra hissing at them, while he looked her dead in the eyes. Starla couldn't stand the sight of a snake, never mind a human being with the attitude and slinkiness of a snake. Her mother always told her that a snake was the devil, and should be made extinct, before they rule the world.

"I dreamt that I can trust you." He said short, looking away from the intimidating snake.

"You did what?" Starla said through her laugh.

"Don't you see Starla, it was a sign. I usually get dreams like those, destiny dreams."

"So did you see my... I mean our destiny?" he shook his head. "Well than that's a whole lot of bull."

Alexandr sighed. "Your negativity..."

Starla grabbed him by the hand and exited the exhibition, to where they last sat. "Where's mom and dad?" he asked after they sat again.

One sentence popped up in Starla's head. – They left us! – She gave a fake smile, stood up and kicked a pebble away from her. "They left." She said softly, and shook her head.

"Excuse me?" Alexandr asked, as he was observing a four leaf clover.

Starla turned to him and her chest expanded. "They left us, just like when I was alone."

"Look, Starla a four leaf clover, we have luck on our side... what did you say again?"

She sighed. ""for the third time: They left us!"

"Who left you?" A male voice said behind her, and Alexandr waved at the man, but before he could speak, Starla did.

"Dad? It was no one."

"I'm getting mixed emotion from you Star, one moment you're hot and the next you're cold. What's going on?" Conrad asked, with his hands on her shoulders. Rebecca arrived later with two hot chocolate drinks.

"Shut your mouth about me being hot or cold, don't you know that I don't love you!" Rebecca let go of the two cups and cupped her hands over her mouth. It was past five and the zoo wasn't so busy, but many eyes were still on the Starla and her foster, who was caught off-guard. When Starla could phantom what she had just said, her eyes grew. "I'm sorry..."

"You're sorry?" Conrad said after he gave her a slap over the cheek. "Where's your respect? I changed towards you Starla Fisher, now why can't you."

Tears ran from her eyes, while Rebecca hugged Alexandr, whose eyes were wide. "I did change!"

"How?"

"After you said those words... my dad used to say it to me before he raped me!"

"Starla." he sugar-coated his voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"That's because you were not interested in my wellbeing when I was depressive."

Rebecca's soft hand touched her daughter's face, and she kissed her forehead. "You two are very precious to us, we already explained our previous penumbra... we love you Starla."

"The last few days were quite fun" Starla said, smiling over Rebecca's shoulder to her brother, who pulled his knees up and moved from left to right. That position looked familiar, then it clicked in her head. She had already forgot about the day she sat in the corner of her old home, with her mom and dad arguing, when the police came to arrest the filth bag. Every sound in the world disappeared, as she thought back, and was replaced with the police sirens of those days. Suddenly a voice rose over the sirens, bringing her out of her trance.

"Starla?" Rebecca asked while she snapped her fingers.

"I said let's go home, dear. Are you alright, you look a bit white by the cheeks"

"Yeah.. uh... I'm alright." Starla picked up her pace and they climbed in the car.

As Alexandr sat at the back of the car, with his sister, he looked at the back of Rebecca's head and then Conrad's. – How precious are we to you two? - He asked as they drove onto the main road to their home.