Animals talk when people are absent. It was 2 AM at the zoo. Dark, of course. And empty of the public.
Rhinoceros: Hey, who are you? And what’re you doing here?
Rattus: You’ve got to help me.
Rhinoceros: You’re a rat, right?
Rattus: The name’s Rattus
He was a brown rat, also known as a common rat or sewer rat
Rhinoceros: So?
Rattus: May I stay here?
The rat was wet and scraggly. The rhinoceros took up a great amount of space, as rhinos will.
Rhinoceros: Huh?
Rattus: I can’t take it anymore.
Rhinoceros: Was it the sewers? Was it the people out there?
Rattus: The sewers were gross, and the people even grosser. That’s why I figured it’d be so much better here with a rhinoceros.
David Sydney is a physician who writes fiction in and out of the EHR (Electronic Health Record).