by M. R. Holman
complete and utter lack of profitable commodities. It was located in a seldom visited sector of the Milky Way galaxy. The visitor's center and the spacecraft landing pad were the only permanent structures on the whole planet. A small number of park rangers, five to be specific, were spaced throughout the planet to patrol, maintain the integrity of the park, and aid visitors. There were currently no visitors.
Generic jazz music played softly over the intercom in the visitor's center, echoing off the stone walls and hallways throughout the building. A twenty-two year old woman sat at the lobby's receptionist desk and doodled idly on a pad of paper. Her name was Rooney. She was the sixth and final permanent resident of Learant XII Galaxial Park.
Rooney brushed her dark red hair away from her face as she continued to draw. She was shading the tail of a creature that resembled a wallaby. It was, by pure coincidence, called a wallaby on this planet as well. The wallaby usually made an appearance outside of the front window of the visitor's center, but had been absent all day. This was odd, because she had left half of a sandwich outside for a wallaby who she had named Wallace. Wallace was still reticent to let Rooney touch him but he always gladly accepted her sandwiches.
The park rangers would likely be upset if they knew that Rooney had been feeding the wildlife, but she did not care much anymore. Besides, the park rangers rarely visited the visitor's center. In fact, it had been well over a month since any of them had stopped by. This suited Rooney. The park rangers had proven to be a miserable lot.
Rooney had found her way to this job at this planetary park under strange circumstances. She had feverishly applied to almost every planetary park in the galaxy during her final academic year. Most had not even bothered to contact her back. Some, she later discovered, had been destroyed, abandoned, or had never existed in the first place. A few had the decency to contact her and tell her that she would not be interviewed for a position. Learant XII Galaxial Park, however, had offered her a job outright, without even an interview… She should have known from her previous experience in trying to get a ranger job that this was a red flag.
They told her that after only two years as a "Junior Park Ranger" that she would be a full Planetary Park Ranger. They neglected to tell her that "Junior Park Ranger" actually meant visitor center receptionist. But with no other prospects other than bagging galactic groceries or becoming a layabout, like so many of her fellow classmates who had gotten the generic degree of 'Galactic Studies', she decided to try to make a go of it.
There was not much information about Learant XII available to those who lived outside of it. After it had been established that there was very little value aside from its aesthetic beauty, interest in exploring and charting the land and discovering and studying the multitudes of unique flora and fauna on the planet had been lost by the vast majority of the population of the Milky Way galaxy. There was a whole galaxy full of unique flora and fauna, and it was located much closer to most of the residents of the galaxy. Frankly, it was all a bit overwhelming to begin with. Dedicated park goers did occasionally find their way to Learant XII, however, so it needed Park Rangers.
Before Rooney had arrived, a sign on a stick that said 'WELCOME' with an arrow pointing to a stack of pamphlets about the park had done her job. She kept the sign hidden beneath her desk in case she ever wanted to go for a stroll out in the wilderness or take a quick nap for an hour or two. Some may think her job sounded dull, and it was, but it suited her well. She liked the freedom to let her mind wander all day long. She could read, she could throw rocks at things, she could wander around the forests, and she could draw wallabies without even the slightest chance of being reprimanded for not working at all times.
Movement caught the corner of Rooney's eye and she looked up from her drawing. It was Wallace. He was happily munching on the sandwich with his tiny wallaby paws. Rooney examined him, trying not to move too quickly and scare him away so that she could finish her drawing. He did not seem as skittish today. He glared at her through the window with his beady black eyes, his jaw moving up and down and side to side as it chewed and ground the sandwich.
Her drawing was complete. She held it at arm’s length and examined it thoughtfully, looking from the real specimen to the artistic rendering and back. Wallace had sat down on the wide concrete steps of the visitor center, resting on his long muscular tail. Today could be the day, she thought...
Rooney quietly stood up from her desk, drawing still in hand, and walked to the transparent doors of the visitor center. She opened the door as slowly as possible. Wallace glanced back at her, but was too engrossed with his sandwich to give her much thought. He turned around almost instantly and continued eating. Rooney sat two steps behind him and watched.
Small muscles in the back of Wallace's head flexed as he took each bite, causing his ears to wiggle minutely. Rooney moved forward one step. The wallaby seemed to be on alert now, but it continued to sit still and eat.
"Hello," Rooney said to the wallaby. She was not sure why she said this. She had never spoken to the wildlife before.
Wallace turned his neck to face Rooney and nervously said, "Hello."
Rooney's eyes grew wide and the wallaby slowly turned its neck to continue eating. Why had no one told her that the wallabies could talk? Could they talk? Had she lost her mind from being cooped up in that visitor center for three months?
"You can talk?" she asked Wallace in disbelief.
It did not turn around again, but lowered the sandwich. Once it had finished chewing it said, "Greetings."
"Why have you never spoken before?" Rooney asked angrily, walking down the steps to face the wallaby head on. It stood up as though preparing to flee and she took a step back, realizing she should not have used such an angry tone.
"Good afternoon..." Wallace said, eyeing her apprehensively.
"What a polite wallaby..." Rooney whispered under her breath to herself. Wallace's ears pricked up when she whispered. "I drew a picture of you," Rooney said to him, holding up the drawing she had so recently completed of the wallaby.
Wallace gulped down the final bite of the sandwich and examined the picture. "Thank you," he said graciously.
Rooney could not believe this. "You... You're welcome..." she said, flabbergasted. The two of them stood in silence for several long moments. Rooney could think of nothing else to say, and Wallace seemed to have gone tacit as well. He began to bounce minutely on his legs, as though preparing to depart.
"Wait!" she exclaimed, thinking desperately of something to say to the talking wallaby before it departed. "Do you want to keep it?" she said, holding out the drawing.
Wallace hesitated. Cautiously, his small furry face etched with mistrust, he approached the outstretched drawing. It was the closest he had ever come to Rooney. He leaned forward slowly and sniffed the paper. Seemingly uninterested, he withdrew his nose and stepped backward before turning around.
"No, don't go!" Rooney called out as he began to hop away.
"Good day," the wallaby shouted as it jumped off of the last step and gamboled across the clearing and into the forest.
Rooney stood upon the concrete steps, staring at the spot in which Wallace had disappeared into the forest. She walked back into the visitor center in shock, as one does when an animal previously unknown to possess the capability of speech converses with them, and returned to her desk. She placed the wallaby drawing upon the desktop and picked up the radio handset which was used to communicate with the park rangers and nearby planets and space stations. It had been almost perpetually silent since she had arrived, aside from the rare transmissions which announced visitors' arrivals.
She hesitated before pressing the button that would open communication between herself and the rangers. Should she really tell them? She was not entirely sure that it had even happened... She did not want them to think that she was cracking up. She considered this for several minutes, finally coming to the conclusion that it was real and had actually happened. She could not ha
ve imagined that. If she had, the conversation would have gone better...
Her hands shaking, she raised the handset to her mouth and pressed a button on the side. "Hello? Can anyone read me? Over."
There was silence, punctuated by the occasional pop of static. After twenty or thirty seconds, someone finally replied. "This is ranger Sal reading you.... Who am I speaking to? Over."
"This is Rooney," she said, relieved that she got a response. Sal was one of the park rangers that she had not yet met. "The Junior Ranger. Over."
"Oh, hello. I was not aware that we had a Junior Ranger. Over."
"Well, you do. Over," she said snarkily.
"Uh huh... What do you need? Over," Sal said, sounding a bit annoyed at her tone. She realized that it was likely warranted.
"I, uh, have a question about the wildlife. Over," she said, trying to think of the proper way to tell her superiors that she had just had a conversation with a wallaby.
"Wildlife, you say? Over," a different voice chimed in. The channel was open to all of the planetary park rangers on Learant XII.
"Yes... Who is this? Over," she said as she closed her eyes and put her forehead into her free hand. She had preferred that only one ranger would hear this.
"This is Ranger Wallace. Over." She had not met this ranger either, and
