Clemens quietly made his way out from the small break room and out to the area in the reptile house where tour groups would come to. Normally a person in his position at the zoo didn't do a lot of the tours. He handled the scheduling for the other keepers, arranged what was to be fed for the specimens in the zoo's collection, scheduling basic medical treatment, determining which animals were to be bred to keep up the zoo population, even if it meant the young being given to another zoo. He also coordinated with other zoos regarding trades, breeding, and potentially shelter given the occasional exotic pet seized after an "accident." Given Florida's issues with the breeding population of Burmese Pythons in the Everglades (and spreading through southern most Florida) along with other exotic snakes released into the wild as former pets or escapees following Hurricane Andrew, which included the very snake he had become, the African Rock Python, Clemens had also found himself coordinating specialized classes with various law enforcement agencies from around the state, as well as with basic animal control officers to give them training on dealing with native venomous species as well as non-native giant constrictors.
But after he took over his new job within the zoo, a promotion from his previous position, and it was revealed that the release of the snakes on the school tour was done by his coworkers and not by him, he'd found himself getting a lot of apologies from the parents. They had attacked him in the sort of rage that only an angry parent could muster and when they realized their mistake they apologized. This lead him to meeting several of the children, those who had recovered anyway, and like George and Molly had found in Columbia Falls, Clemens found that the children seemed to be the most trusting and curious of those that were different. That lead him to add his own name to the rotation of staff members that conducted tours of the zoo's reptile house.
"Sssshe ssellss ssea shellsss by the seassshore," Clemens spoke softly, working on the practice to improve on the lisp that his changed tongue left him with, "She ssells seashellss by the sseashore..."
He repeated the line a few times quietly until he noticed the tour group coming in. Schools hadn't quite started yet, and various summer "daycare" programs, some run by schools some run by cities were still active and zoo tours were still popular attractions, and Clemens now waited for them. They were lead by a woman with spectacles who looked to be in her forties with about twenty children, most of them about the age that fourth graders would be. They also had three other adults with them, whom Clemens judged to be parents/adult chaperons. One wore a heavy brown coat and had a rather unkempt face, but Clemens figured he was busy with a lot of the work that the man did. He focused to then remember the name of the teacher that Clemens had been given for the woman's name.
"And you would be Mss. Marnsstorm," Clemens spoke slowly and carefully. He'd found that a slower rate of speech had also helped him reduce the risk of hissing on anything that sounded like an "s." He was making vast improvement, and he knew that Jenny and Joseph would be perfectly fine with his impediment for personal reasons, and the Waynes of course were okay with it by associating issues Clemens had with issues they had.
"Yes, and you would be Clemens Patten, the Reptile House Director," the woman gave a warm motherly-type smile and shook his hand, "I hope we're not to late."
"He's a snake!" one of the kids stated, not mean or anything like that... just... innocent.
"Do you live here?" another kid asked.
"Boys!" Ms. Marnstorm scolded.
"It isss alright," Clemens Patten said slowly, "Yess, I am an Animal Persson... an African Rock Python."
Clemens got down onto one knee and reached out to shake the boys hand.
"Do you live here?" the boy asked.
"No," Clemens gave a chuckle, "My home iss elssewhere in the city... though I supposse this placce feelss like home."
That raised a few "oohs" and "awws." Clemens managed a slight smile, as he stood back up and turned to move a point where could address all of those gathered. Once he got to that point he turned and prepared the introduction he had rehearsed when he first took on the role of giving tours at the reptile house.
"Hello and welcome to THE reptile housssssssssse," Clemens announced deliberately hissing the "s" that time. The cheers made him smile, even a couple of the girls smiled. "Here you will ssee the zoo's collection of reptiless. Do you know what reptiless are?"
"Alligators," a girl spoke.
"Snakes," another added with a shiver.
"Frogs," a boy added.
"You were right up to that last one," Clemens corrected, "Frogs and toadss are amphibians. Reptiless are the first vertebrate animals to evolve to live on land. They are known by dry sscaly skin, laying leathery eggss, and being cold blooded."
"Does that mean they're mean?" a girl asked.
"No, it meanss that a reptile is dependent on the air around it to regulate its body temperature," Clemens explained, "here we have sspeccializzed heaters and pools of water and large pools for our crocodiles and alligators. Our collection holdss a great variety and I will do my best to point out each one to you ass we procceed. Our tour will end in one care area and memberss of my sstaff will bring out some representativess of the repitlian world that you will be able to pet."
"Can we pet you?" a boy asked as he seemed fascinated by Clemens' tail, which he'd coiled loosely around his feet.
Clemens didn't know how to answer that. Some animal people had actually come to like it, though he figured that was a means by which they enjoyed having attention directed to them. Others didn't because they didn't want it seem as though they were truly mundane animals.
"We'll ssee," Clemens said carefully, "now, if you come with me, we'll get started with the turtless and tortissesss. Now contrary to popular storiess... they aren't ninjass."
From there the tour went well. The children enjoyed the tour greatly and they didn't have any problems. The only real issue on the tour came at the end when they reached a care area. Despite the name "care area," it was actually set up for the purposes of letting children in tour groups get a chance for a hands on experience with animals in the zoo's collection. One of the keepers brought out a Green Iguana and another brought out a Common Kingsnake. Both animals were typically used as part of the program, and both were used to the handling. The Iguana was chosen for the program when it was a young adult because Iguanas were common human pets and were used to it. The Kingsnake was a recent choice, but was chosen for its docile nature. The children seemed curious, but one of the adult chaperons, the one who looked unkempt and wore a denim-like jacket, seemed disappointed by something.
"A Kingsnake?" the man asked.
"Yes, sir," the keeper answered nervously, "they are remarkably calm... even when caught in the wild, so there is little risk of anyone being bitten and since it's non-venomous, there is no real risk of a fatality if the snake is provoked."
"But..." the man began to protest, "this doesn't prove..."
"Handling of venomouss specciess runss the rissk of deathss, something that I will not allow to happen again," Clemens said firmly.
The man blinked.
"A little more than a year ago I wass in a lower officce in thiss zzoo," Clemens said slowly, mentally shuddering at the memory, "but my coworkers at that time were not very supportive of Animal People and they releassed sseveral ssnakes on a tour group... children were bitten... many went to the hosspital... there were fatalitiesss... and one of the releassed ssnakess was a King Cobra which ate two of the other ssakess that had been released. It was not a good day and I will not take the rissk."
Clemens found himself visibly shaking at this. The kids noticed, and one boy moved to actually hug his leg.
"I can understand not wanting take such risks," the man spoke carefully, "No one wants to see kids hurt... I'd thought that you would know how to handle said snakes so you could show that they aren't evil..."
"No snake is evil, sir," the keeper answered, "but a mundane snake following its instincts may fear that they'll be hurt or eaten and will do what they can to defend themselves... and with venomous snakes that represents a clear health risk. People who handle these snakes generally tend to get bitten... partially because venomous snakes are not as docile as this Kingsnake. Even professional handlers have been bitten from time to time."
The man looked down for a moment. Clemens got the sense that he didn't mean any harm or threat, but there was still something odd about him. He remained quit through the rest of the session, but as Ms. Marnstorm moved to get the kids ready to go back to their bus, the man approached Clemens closely.
"You've performed a great service here, I think a lot of those kids may have an interest in studying reptiles," the man commented.
"Herpetologisst," Clemens informed him.
"Well... yes... but you could answer to a higher calling," the man said to him and as the man turned, he handed Clemens a small business card.
Clemens looked at it and his eyes caught the label on it. It read, "Martin Veebook - Church of Lord Jesus - Find God's Favor through the Eyes of the Serpent." Below that was a cellphone number. The man had left with the kids before Clemens could fully respond, and it still left him wondering, what do they want with me?