Zach Perry

“You go, Paul!”
“Wow!! You’re so tall and handsome Paul!”
“Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul!” The crowd around him continued to cheer, but their voices seemed to grow more distant and quiet very rapidly.
“PAULLLLL!” A new and foreign voice yelled.
“PAUL! Wake up you’re going to be late!”
Immediately jolted awake by the hands of his mother, Paul felt depressed again. The
only times that he really ever felt okay was when he was asleep. At a measly 4’8”, Paul suffered from constant ridicule due to his dwarfism, which sadly rarely came from anyone but himself. A common case in those who are well below average height is extreme self-consciousness.

Paul really doesn’t struggle with in life as the valedictorian of his high school and the ASB secretary. Everyone loved Paul, everyone but himself. He would lay down anything and everything just in the hopes of affecting one’s life in a positive way.

He isn’t okay with living at home and going to college, but he thinks that if he were to live on campus he would get beat up or harassed most every day. His mother, a loving and compassionate woman, had raised him and gotten him through his first two years of college at Creighton University in Nebraska. The university is a mere 30 minutes from home, causing his world to be very small which he thinks has caused a major lack of social development. His father was never in the picture, which Paul internalized in a very negative way.

Due to his constant battle with self-consciousness, all he craves in life is the feeling of acceptance. The only, and very irrational way that he feels to have acceptance is to ride a giraffe. Paul had been saving since the eleventh grade and was now able to afford it.

“So is that for one or one-half? Hahaha” He kept picturing the conversation with the travel agent in his mind on the ride to the airport. Walking up to the desk that was taller than himself did not extinguish his fear in the slightest.

Next thing he knew he was through security. ‘What happened?’ He thought to himself, but didn’t care all that much. He was holding the two most important tickets of his small life thus far. One for his ride to Africa, and one for his wild safari.

“Now seating sections 1-3. I repeat, sections 1-3!” the gate attendant said in a tone happier than Paul thought his father must be without him. Paul was already feeling better, and decided that thoughts like that were no longer allowed on his trip.

With his newly found positivity, he confidently strode step by step up to the gate. Boop, “enjoy your flight!” Beep, “have a great trip!” Boop “enjoy your flight sir!” And with a shaking hand extended in the direction of the tall, beautiful woman at the gate, Paul handed her his ticket. Beeeeeeeeeee-. “Hmm, that’s strange” the gate-woman said.

“Uh, is everything okay?” Paul asked, feeling a twinge of regret.

“Yes, everything is fine, but it seem that somehow we booked two people in your seat. This is a very rare occurrence but we should have other seats available, would you be willing to switch?” She asked him in a way that warmed up his full-sized heart.
“Uh sure, but don’t you guys have computers that prevent that from happening?” He wondered earnestly.
“Yes sir, and we’re very sorry for this, but the man who was booked in your seat had originally bought a first class ticket, and decided that he wasn’t in the financial situation to fly first class so he switched last minute to coach. The woman that was checking him in must have made a mistake, but we’ll get this figured out for you in just one second.”
KSHHHH ‘attention travelers, please keep an eye out for unattended baggage and report
it by calling 732-387-23--


“SIR?!”


“Oh yes, yeah, sorry. I was listening to the announcement. What is the deal?”


“Well, it seems that we are overbooked and the only seat available is the one in first class. I apologize for this inconvenience and I hope it wouldn’t be too much trouble to ask you to just take his seat for this flight?”


“No surcharge?” Paul asked, with his empty pockets mirroring his bank account.


“Nope, since this was our mistake you’re going to get to fly first class for free! Have a wonderful flight Mr. Rosebury.” And with that, he was off, and in one of the greatest moods that he’s ever been in.

Since he’s only 20 he couldn’t enjoy the drinking side of first class, but loved the seating. He felt as if he was in his bed at home. Needless to say he fell asleep in New York and woke up in Paris, with the flight from Paris to Kenya having the same story.

As he was exiting the airport, there were numerous faces looking into the crowd that he was in, each holding a sign with a name on it. This was the first time that he was on his own in life without his mother.
Mellissa Johnson.. no
John Chang.. no
Paul Rosebury
This was his moment, the one that he was waiting for. Clearing his mind of any negativity, he greeted the man with a happy hello and rode back with him to the safari ‘home base’.

The ride from the airport was very exciting for Paul. The man who picked him up was inexplicably wearing a suit because the drive was made in a late 70’s jeep with dirt all over it. Paul assumed the roads would be bumpy, however the dirt paths that they drove on were completely barren of bumps and potholes. The dirt actually causes them to be softer and more forgiving than asphalt, so these ‘horrible dirt paths’ actually ended up being smoother than most every American road.

Paul was starting to dive into his thoughts of the warm, dry environment, but the brush on the side of the road became hypnotic and next thing he knew they were pulling up to the safari camp. The home base was a large facility, and was an actual structured building. There were 7 Jeeps like the one that he had gotten a ride from the airport in, and 6 more ‘stretch’ jeeps canopies which he assumed were for the actual safaris themselves. Almost unable to contain himself, Paul hop-skipped to the front desk to check in and get ready. Paul arrived only two hours before the safari departed, giving him just enough time to check out a tent and his gear.

“Hi, I’m Samantha.” Said a voice that startled Paul, but for no good reason. It was a warm and welcoming voice coming from the first person to introduce herself on this safari. She was somewhere in her late 20’s, and with fiery red hair. Paul immediately grew closest with Samantha on the safari, because they had time to talk and familiarize before a deep, booming voice interrupted:

“CIRCLE UP EVERYONE” Said a man in traditional African safari gear, “If we’re about to go out into the wild where anything and everything wants to kill YOU, you guys are going to need to know your new family for the next three days.”

“Paul” said Paul when he was prompted to state his name to the group. He was already scanning the environment through the tall, dusty windows, frantically looking for a giraffe. He could hardly contain himself!

“Samantha” She followed, sitting immediately to Paul’s right.

“Jimmy” Said a shorter, stockier man, but in no way in bad shape.

“Hi everyone, I’m Geoff!” Said a very strange voice. Almost the same pitch as Samantha’s, but with an angry booming tone like the one of the safari leader. Just to add to the confusion, Geoff is 6’2”, Paul would assume 185 pounds, solid muscle of course, and a crew cut that screams ‘I just got out of the military’.

“Hmm, small group” immediately followed the safari leader, whos voice that rocked Paul’s eardrums with every syllable. “Usually there’s at least 6 or 7, now we might actually have to buy some meat for the lions.” The man said it in such a serious way that Samantha became visibly uncomfortable being here. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’m just a big old goof, you guys will be fine, and since you’re a smaller group you may be able to come in contact with some of the animals.

This is really happening thought Paul he said we’ll be able to come in contact with animals, this means I will be able to “Ride a Giraffe” He accidentally said aloud.

“Excuse me?” The safari leader questioned.

“Well, that was completely accidental, but I guess I can let it out now. I kind of came here in the hopes of riding a giraffe. It’s a weird goal of mine, and one which the reasoning behind I don’t think I’ll want to share. Do you think that might be able to happen?” Paul asked. He had perfected his innocent ‘baby face’ by making it extremely subtle, but it seemed to work about half the time he tried.

“I’m sorry Paul, but I don’t think we’re able to allow that sort of contact with the animals, but if we’re far enough away from this facility and we can get one in a docile mood I see no reason why we couldn’t let you get on it for a couple minutes!” With those words Paul felt as if he was in Heaven.

Day one of the safari was pretty uneventful, as was expected if one chose to read the brochure. The first day was almost entirely dedicated to learning safety procedures, explaining the ‘buddy system’ and how to handle most every emergency that they will never experience.

That night when it came to choosing tent partners, it went in order of names, and with that news Paul was immediately shot dirty looks by both Jimmy and Geoff. They wanted to share a tent with Samantha, however Paul was completely indifferent about it, which made Samantha much more comfortable with this decision. When they were all set up and about to go to bed, Paul was taken out of his slumber-like trance from Samantha’s voice.

“Tell me about yourself.” She said, making light conversation to pass some time.

Paul said that he’s currently attending Creighton University and that he just wants to ride a Giraffe for no good reason. He didn’t ask her the same and frankly didn’t care all that much. He doesn’t possess the greatest people skills so he didn’t really pick up on her wanting to talk, and went to sleep.

The next morning was interesting, because Jimmy had sprouted a rash on the right side of his face. It was unexplained, but everyone just brushed it off as the new environment messing with his skin.

“Damn boy, 17 again?” Said the Safari leader, followed by a chuckle and a light pat on Jimmy’s shoulder. “I’m just messing with you, but that looks like a mean little patch of acne you got going on there!”

In the first half of the day, they saw Lions, Elephants, Zebra, several different horned deer-like creatures, and even a Hippo! The one thing that he didn’t see but cared oh so much for was the Giraffe. Around 3pm, the acne/rash that Jimmy had was starting to bother him. After a brief inspection, the tour guide said it’s a pretty rare form of rash, but needs to be rubbed by a specific style of leaf that only grows at the tops of trees. This needed to happen as soon as possible because the oil that’s active in the pigment of the leaf neutralizes the reaction that caused this rash. If he doesn’t take care of it soon it may evolve into a form of skin infection that could even require minor surgery to get rid of.

“Hey, 2 o clock, there’s your Giraffe Paul,” Said the guide. Then he added, “Actually he’s right near the type of tree that grows the leaves that Jimmy needs. You can ride your giraffe and I’ll turn the other cheek about it, but we need you to be able to snag one of those leaves, can you do it?”

In his excitement he would have agreed to anything to ride that giraffe, so with a quick “of course” and a flick of his wrist, they were now in a straight-line path to the giraffe.

Getting up wasn’t too hard for him, the guide distracted the giraffe and soothed it into being okay with the humans nearby. He then parked the safari jeep right next to him and helped Paul onto the roof. Paul then had to make a small hop and bam. He. Was. Riding. A. Giraffe.

No words could describe how young Paul felt riding that giraffe. Not only could he see the tops of people’s heads, those heads were shouting things like “you go Paul!” and “Great job!” After he climbed back down, leaf in hand he felt true acceptance, the one that comes from oneself. This was truly the best day of his life thus far, and he never wanted to leave.

Sadly after a long night’s sleep, and a 3 hour ride back to home base, they arrived. Paul checked back in his tent and gear, and sat around with the group who all were laughing and recalling their lovely experience together. Jimmy thanked Paul again for getting the leaf for him, which he could have done himself, but knew it had made Paul’s experience so much better.

The same man who gave Paul a ride to the home base gave all four of the campers a ride to the airport. Everyone was pooped and the driver didn’t speak English, which sounds like an awkward environment, but it wasn’t. Nobody wanted, or needed, to talk after the trip because everyone was pretty happy with it.

Paul obviously couldn’t have expected the same treatment on the flights back as he did before, but thankfully he wasn’t really affected by the change in leg room. Once he was home, his mother asked how the trip was in the form of about 50 different questions. He didn’t talk her ear off for hours, or even 10 minutes. He just said it was really, really great and thanked her for letting him do it.

There he was, happy as a clown, but back in his rut. Paul didn’t care, because this rut now has four leg holes instead of the normal two, or at least he felt like it did. These extra leg holes were made from his trusty steed Connor the Giraffe, who he imagined riding every day for the rest of his life.