When I was little my parents took me and my sister to the Portland Zoo a lot, I loved animals, so it was one of my favorite places to go! We went to the zoo a little less after the flasher incident...
When I was about 6 years old, we went to the zoo, and it was a beautiful day. I had a habit of wandering off, because I've always been a bit of an explorer. I've just had a natural curiosity of all things. My mom did a pretty good job of keeping track of me, but I gave her a run for her money most times.
My favorite animals at the zoo were the bears, beavers, and the cougars! There was this trail you went up and you saw the black bears, bald eagles, the beaver den, and then the cougar crossing! No one ever listened to me when I said where I wanted to go, and my sister liked the monkeys, lemurs, and bats. Somehow she convinced my parents to go where she wanted first! I think my dad just didn't feel like going up the trail, quite honestly!
As they were distracted watching the monkeys, I took my opportunity to get away, and go find my bears and beavers! I really didn't have any fear back then, so I didn't think it was any big deal to run off from my family in a large zoo with no idea where I was going!
I found the signs pointing to the canyon trail and I made my way to the black bears! I was a happy camper. I was continuing up the trail and having a great time, when all of a sudden I got to the top and I saw this guy in a tan trench coat looking at me kind of funny. He got a grin on his face and then opened his coat. He was a flasher! I started screaming and within seconds my mom and dad came running up behind me. They were so mad I had run off and so relieved they found me, they didn't even notice the flasher. Once he saw my parents he quickly covered up and ran off. My mom asked me why I was screaming and all I could do was point to where he had been. I didn't know what to say!
Clearly, I was traumatized, but my mom couldn't figure out why. I started to do the motion he had done in opening the coat. My mom wasn't figuring it out. So, I just said "there was a guy in a coat and he had nothing else on. He showed me his thing." My mom freaked out. She was trying to find every zoo employee under the sun to alert them. She just kept hugging me and asking me if I was ok. I was just fine! I just wanted to go see the cougars now!
I was pretty resilient, it didn't bother me for long. I did milk it for as long as I could though. Needless to say, the next few times we went anywhere, I got to do what I wanted first!
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