James chased after Nicola for a few streets but she knew the area better than him and had soon managed to give him the slip. Still, he knew where she was headed and figured he could beat her there if he used public transport. After a nervous wait a bus headed straight for the local zoo arrived and James jumped on.
He looked out of the window to see if he could spy his friend en route but there was no sign of her and it wasn't as if she would be easy to miss. Some time later, James arrived at the entrance to the zoo.
"You haven't had any unusual visitors today by any chance?" he asked the woman at the desk as he bought his admission ticket. The confused middle aged lady shook her head as if he was crazy.
"Never mind" James answered as he moved through the turnstiles. Nicola was on foot and may not have made it yet, unless her mentioning the zoo was a trick to throw him off her scent. Either way, his best tactic was probably to hang around in the hope she arrived soon. But before he could plan any further James started feeling strange. He hadn't realised when reading randomly from the book that he had read two curses instead of one, the first was turning Nicola into a monkey, but the second seemed to have been triggered when he entered the zoo and was now beginning to take effect on him.