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Gabi and Miles had raced to be in front of the procession, each of them talking a mile a minute to each other in excitement while trying to make sure that they didn’t ignore Tarah nor Lexine who were right behind them.  Every so often, the four of them switched places so that Tarah and Lexine also led. Big Bird and Snuffy were discussing the possibilities of today with each other as they walked down the sidewalk. Elmo, Telly, Zoe, and Rosita were cheerfully explaining how excited they were about the trip.  Penelope stayed back walking beside Irvine and Alice to make sure that they stayed safe while holding on to Barkley’s leash. She smiled softly at how happy they all looked, other than Irvine who was constantly complaining but that was to be expected. They had taken the bus most of the way, but it still wasn’t a quick walk considering that Penelope needed to walk each of them across the street.  As they reached the zoo, she paid for all of them to get inside. At the protest of no dogs, she cheerfully reminded them that they’d let in an 8’ bird and two Snuffleupaguses so the dog shouldn’t be a problem. She had won the argument easily. She leaned down to Barkley. “Never say Aunt Penelope never did anything for you,” she teased, grinning at the puppy kisses she got in response.

Once she was certain that they were ready, she got their attention.  “So, most of you have been wanting to see how I do my job. I thought this would be the best place to do it.”

“I thought Mom said you aren’t supposed to let us play spy games,” Miles reminded her.

“I got permission from one of your parents,” she said.

“I don’t think Bob counts as one of my parents,” Miles said skeptically.  Penelope rolled her eyes.

“Sure he does,” she said.  “Do you consider him another father?”

“Yes,” Miles said with certainty.

“And does he think you’re his son?”  She asked.

“Yes,” Miles said with just as much certainty.

“Then he is and it counts,” she said.

“I thought Mamá said you and Father weren’t supposed to baby-sit together,” Gabi said.

“We’re not.  I’m here and Bob is on the Street.  We aren’t baby-sitting together at all,” Penelope said.  Bob and her had both decided that the letter of the law worked just as well as the spirit of the law in this case as long as Penelope wasn’t going to put them in any danger.  She’d walked over the exercise with him and they had both agreed that it was probably the safest way to get past the mystery of her job without encouraging reckless behavior. She was pretty sure she could have easily convinced Gordon and Linda as well, but Susan and Maria were very against it at all.  It would be worth it to give the kids this rather than find a stowaway in her car one day in her opinion. And, as mentioned, she had gotten one of their parents to agree with her so it wasn’t like she was going rogue and she’d accept their punishment for it later without complaint.

“We’re going to get to be agents?”  Big Bird asked excitedly and Penelope looked at him.

“Junior agents,” she said quickly.  “And here’s the first rule of being an agent:  All agents have to listen to their lead agent because she knows more of what she’s doing.  If your lead agent tells you to do something, you do it. Understood?”

“Yes, Penelope!”  They all answered.  Except for Irvine who said “Yuck.”

“And this is why you have to stay with Alice and me today,” she told the baby Grouch.  “Second, all agents have to have a partner. It is very important for partners to stay together.  Like how you guys never see Donovan without Kathy.”

“But Travis is your partner and he isn’t here!”  Snuffy told her. Penelope nodded solemnly.

“That’s true.  But today, I have Irvine, Alice and Barkley helping me,” she said.  “So, they might not be my normal partner, but I’m still partnered up.”

“And you do that on Sesame Street too!”  Zoe said excitedly. “Sometimes you partner up with Maria or Luis or Linda…”

“Or Bob or Gordon or Susan or Olivia or Gina or…” Rosita continued.  Penelope held up a hand.

“Right,” she said quickly, agreeing to whatever kept these kids with their partners. “So it’s very important that you all stay with your partner.  I don’t care if you think it will take less time or be easier to split up, any partners who split up can’t play anymore. Understood?”

“Okay,” they agreed.  She nodded.

“Good,” she answered.  “So, here’s your mission.  I need information from every animal on these lists.  I separated them out so that you can all look for each animal.  It is very important that I get the information by the end of the day.  So, are you all up to the challenge?”

“Yes!”  They all yelled, other than Irvine who responded with “No!”  Penelope wasn’t worried. She’d taken that into consideration.  She handed out each of the papers to the pairs. They easily separated in to teams:  Gabi and Miles, Lexine and Tarah, Snuffy and Big Bird, Elmo and Telly, and Zoe and Rosita.  She also gave each team a notebook other than the tape recorder she gave to Zoe and Elmo who couldn’t read yet.  Barkley stayed at her side along with Alice and Irvine. Once they had them, they looked at her expectantly and headed off when she waved a hand.

“WALK!”  She commanded, slowing several teams down.  She also turned her attention to the only member who could get around that.  “And Tarah? Stay at Lexine’s speed!”

With that, she turned her attention to Irvine and Alice.  Alice looked at her expectantly. “Agent?”

“That’s right.  I have a list just for you two,” she said.  Alice was practically bouncing, but Irvine just folded her arms.

“No!”  She said.  “Yucky!”

Penelope shrugged.  “Okay, but I made sure to put elephants on the list.”

Irvine looked up at her.  “Elephants?” She asked.

“And messy, messy warthogs,” she continued.  “And some vultures. But if you don’t want to see them, Irvine, I guess we can wait here until they get back.”

Irvine barely paused.  “Elephants! Elephants!  Elephants!”

Alice joined in.  “Elephants! Elephants!  Elephants!”

Barkley was already up and Penelope just grinned.  “Alright. Let’s see some elephants.”

***

“So, do we have to sneak quietly to get the information?  Like in secret agent movies?” Gabi asked. Miles shook his head.

“Penelope watched those with me once.  She was really upset by them. Mostly because she said that she doesn’t sneak around at all with her job, but also because she didn’t get fun gizmos to play with.  Mom insisted that was the last thing she needed anyway,” he said.

“What did your dad say?”  She asked.

“Dad tried to figure out how they could make it work.  Bob and Penelope tried to help. Mom threatened to tell Mr. Hooper and said they were being a bad influence on me,” he said.  “Dad argued it was science and then we had to watch a different movie.”

“Huh.  Well, we should probably do this right.  We’ve watched Penelope do this plenty of times.  So, what does she do when she thinks we’re not watching?”  Gabi asked.

“She watches us all a lot and takes notes and then has to remember what she wrote,” Miles said.  “So we need to take really good notes.”

“And try to remember what we wrote!”  Gabi agreed. “Hey Miles? Do you think she really thinks she’s fooling us into thinking this is everything she does?”

“I think it’s making her feel better so we should let her think that,” Miles said decisively.  “Besides, Penelope gets overprotective, but even our parents aren’t allowed to go with her. So, we let her think that we think this is all she does.”

Gabi nodded her agreement.  “And if she eventually finds out that we knew more, she’ll have to be proud of us anyway because we were able to keep it a secret!”

Miles nodded.  “She likes it when people can hide and keep quiet about things.”

Gabi nodded her agreement.  “So, we keep that secret, take good notes, and don’t sneak around because that’s not part of her job.”

“Right,” Miles said.

“Can we make gizmos?”  She asked and he thought about it.

“Not today,” he decided.

“True.  Lexine and Tarah can help us later,” Gabi agreed.  Miles started to protest that that wasn’t what he meant, realized she was going to try later anyway, and decided that he should be involved to keep an eye on things.

“Right,” he answered.

***

Lexine leaned against the fence, happily staring at the gibbons.  The two had agreed to take turns writing down what they learned so that neither of them felt overwhelmed.  Tarah marked down what the plaque said. “I think they’re grooming!” Lexine said.

Tarah nodded and made a note that they groomed each other.  “What else?”

“Umm…  They swing in the trees a lot!”  She offered.

“Swing in trees,” Tarah said, jotting it down and then grinned.  “I don’t think they’d be very happy if Bob accidentally summoned one of them.”

“How would it get there?”  Lexine asked.

“The same way all of the rest of the animals get there, I guess,” Tarah answered.

“Maybe it could swing across the buildings,” Lexine suggested.  “That’s kind of like trees.”

“Maybe,” Tarah said.  “But there aren’t as many handholds as in trees.”

“Oh,” Lexine said.  “Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen a gibbon on Sesame Street.”

“We’ll probably see one eventually when it figures out how to get there,” Tarah said.  Lexine just nodded. “I think I have everything. Your turn!”

They continued on to find the rhinoceroses without any trouble.

***

Zoe and Elmo looked at the giraffes excitedly.  “Elmo likes the giraffes.”

“Me too!”  Zoe agreed.  “They’re tall like Big Bird!”

“And yellow like Big Bird!”  Elmo said.

“And they have long legs like Big Bird!”  Zoe finished. Elmo looked thoughtful.

“Zoe?  Are giraffes part of Big Bird’s family?”  He asked. Zoe looked equally thoughtful and then laughed.

“No!  Big Bird has feathers and giraffes don’t have feathers!”  She said. Elmo laughed with her.

“Good thinking, Zoe!”  Elmo said. He spoke into the recorder.  “Elmo and Zoe found giraffes, Penelope! Zoe and Elmo think that they are tall like Big Bird and yellow like Big Bird and have long legs like Big Bird but giraffes don’t have feathers like Big Bird.  So Elmo and Zoe don’t think Big Bird is a giraffe!”

The two young monsters looked very proud of themselves for their discovery.  Elmo handed the recorder over to Zoe has they headed away from the giraffes. Taking turns and sharing was very important and Penelope would be mad if they accidentally broke the recorder from arguing.  It was a much better idea to share.

***

“Rosita!  The bats have wings just like yours!”  Telly told her, pointing out the similarities.

“They do, Telly!”  Rosita answered. “Do you think they can fly?”

“Well, you have wings like theirs but you can’t fly,” he said.

“Sí!  My wings won’t carry me.  Hola bats! Can you fly?” She asked, watching them.  To their surprise, one of the bats took to the air to get to another part of the enclosure.  “Look, Telly! They can fly!”

“Then how come you can’t fly with your wings?  They’re the same!” Telly said. Rosita looked thoughtful.

“No,” she said.  “I am bigger. Big Bird can’t fly either so maybe it’s because we’re too big.  But look, Telly! They use their wings for hugging! Just like I do!”

She reached over and pulled him into a hug which he returned.  “I think hugging is safer than flying anyway,” he told her.

“Maybe!”  She agreed.  “But it’s nice to see that I have something in common with mis primos.”

“Primos?”  Telly asked.

“Cousins,” she said cheerfully.  Telly nodded.

“Oh!  Nice to meet you, Rosita’s cousins!”  He said.

“Adiós!”  She called out to them.  “Come on, Telly! We have more animals to look at!”

Telly easily followed.

***

Big Bird was easily copying down what they were slowly able to read for each of the exhibits, politely asking for help when necessary.  Snuffy was happily helping him do it as they wandered around. “Bird? Why can’t we play agent if it’s all just writing and reading?”

Big Bird looked thoughtful.  “Penelope has to go off Sesame Street by herself.  They don’t want us to cross the street without a grown up.”

“Oh!  You’re so smart, Bird!”  Snuffy said and Big Bird stood a little taller from pride.

“Thanks, Snuff!”  He answered. “That’s why we can play agent now because Penelope is with us.”

“Of course!”  Snuffy said. “Do you think Donovan and Kathy are allowed to go anywhere on their own?”

“Penelope says they do and then she says she should stop letting them,” Big Bird said.  “If she doesn’t want grown-up agents to cross the street by themselves, she really thinks we shouldn’t.”

Both of them nodded in agreement.  Snuffy looked into the next exhibit.  “Is a crocodile on our list?”

“Let me check,” Big Bird said.  “Yep! Right here. What do you think, Snuffy?”

“Well, it’s long and not very tall and has a lot of teeth,” Snuffy said.  “It’s probably good that it’s in there and not in here.”

“Yeah, I’m glad for the glass there,” Big Bird agreed.  “It says on this that a crocodile has a jaw that is very hard to for it to open, but it snaps shut.”

“Wow, Bird!  Now I’m really glad it’s in there.  I wouldn’t want it to grab on to my snuffle,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want it to grab on to my wings either,” Big BIrd agreed.  “I think we’re done. We should get back to Penelope.”

“Right,” Snuffy agreed and the two best friends made their way back to the entrance.

***

Penelope had her hands full trying to keep Alice on track and Irvine interested enough to not just sit in the middle of the zoo and refuse to move.  Barkley was fortunately listening extremely well to her signs which she greatly appreciated at this point. “Look, Alice! A yucky, yucky warthog!”

Both of the girls immediately looked over at the warthog and Penelope relaxed for a minute.  She looked at Barkley, signing for him to sit which the dog fortunately did for her. She stretched and smiled at the looks of fascination from the little Snuffleupagus and Grouch.

“Penelope!”  She glanced up to see Snuffy and Big Bird rushing toward her.  “We finished!”

“May I see?”  She asked and Big Bird handed the notebook over.  She pretended to examine it thoroughly. “I think it looks like just what I needed.  Did you two split up?”

“No, Penelope.  We stayed together just like you said,” Snuffy told her.  She managed to hide her smile rather well, keeping her serious look.  Honestly, she hadn’t expected any of them to split up other than Gabi and Miles who may have decided that it would have been a better plan.  With her warning at the beginning, she expected little trouble from either of them. Today anyway.

“Penelope!  Elmo and Zoe are finished!”  Elmo said, handing her the recorder.  She gently took it from him and listened to what they’d decided on.  She didn’t get too far before she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to keep a straight face for long and decided to listen to the rest of it later.  Most likely with the other adults.

“This sound informative,” she said.  “And you two stayed together the entire time?”

“Agents are supposed to stay with their partners, Penelope!  You said so!” Zoe told her.

“So I did,” she said.  “Good job.”

She corralled Alice against with Snuffy’s help when she heard her name called again.  She looked over to see Telly and Rosita holding up what they had found. She glanced through it and stopped at the part with the bats.  She glanced at Rosita and tried to keep her voice somewhat professional so she could see if the young monster was upset. “Bats fly with their wings?”  She asked carefully.

“They do!  They look like mine, but they fly,” she said.  

“Read the next part!”  Telly said. Penelope did and felt herself relax.  She held out her arms and let Rosita hug her.

“I’d say your findings are correct,” Penelope said softly.  “Both wings seem very good for hugging.”

“We thought so too!”  Rosita said proudly. Telly looked equally proud.

“So we did okay?”  He asked. She looked at them both.

“Did you stay together?”  She asked.

“Yes!”

“¡Sí!” Rosita agreed.

“Then I’d say you both did great,” she said.  She looked up and smiled as Tarah and Lexine approached.  “How’d it go?”

“We found everything on the list,” Tarah said.

“Penelope?  How would Bob get a gibbon on Sesame Street if they live in trees?”  Lexine said. Penelope sighed.

“I gave up trying to figure out how Bob does it when he summoned Barkley,” she answered, petting the dog.  “He just does it and we just expect it.”

Tarah nodded.  “Don’t try to figure out the magic?”

“On the contrary,” Penelope said.  “Always try to figure it out. Just know that you might not find the answer right away.”

Tarah smiled at the response and Penelope gave her a small nod.  Lexine looked at Penelope. “We found everything on our list and we stayed together.”

“Good,” Penelope said.  “Excellent work.”

They both looked proud of themselves as the last two trickled in.  Miles handed her the notebook and she wasn’t able to hide her surprise in the detail they put into it.  She looked at them both. “You drew pictures?” She asked.

“We wanted to be as detailed as possible,” Miles answered.

“You have files, so we thought you had to have a lot of notes,” Gabi answered.  She leaned in and Penelope met her halfway so that the others couldn’t hear. “And it’ll be a lot harder for Mama and Susan to get mad at you if we learned this much.”

Penelope raised an eyebrow.  “True,” she said.

“And you organized it because you heard Miles and I complaining, huh?”  She asked. Penelope didn’t bother to hide her smile.

“I keep telling them that kids are more observant than adults on Sesame Street,” she said dryly.  Gabi grinned back at her. “Can you tell me the other reason I agreed to it?”

“So we didn’t find out on our own?”  Gabi asked. Penelope nodded and grinned before her face turned completely serious.

“So if I ever find either one of you stowawayed in my car, Gabriela Figueroa, you’re not going to have to worry about any of your parents being angry at you because I will be furious and I will be there first.  Understood?” She said. She would have given the same speech to Miles if he had been the one talking to her, but it was nice that she could inform the ringleader instead. She needed to impress on them that this was not something she would tolerate.

“Okay, Penelope,” she answered.  Penelope pulled her into a hug.

“We’ll probably have to have this speech again when you’re older,” she whispered.  “But I’m glad you’re listening right now. I just want all of you to be safe.”

“And that’s why you went against Mamá and Susan?”  She asked.

“I asked one of your parents if I could do it,” she said, sticking with that story.  Honestly, she’d let them know why she had planned it later, take her lumps for bending the rules and setting a bad example on bending the rules, and not argue on this one.  Maria and Susan were well within the rights to be angry. All of the kids had had fun. All of them had learned about various animals. The mystery regarding her job had lifted a bit.  It was worth it.

“You know that they aren’t going to buy that, right?”  Gabi asked. Penelope shrugged.

“Sometimes, you have to decide what’s the most important thing to you, Gabi, and that might mean getting in trouble.  And it better be very important to you if you’re going to get in a lot of trouble, but when you do, you got in with your head held high and take it,” she said.  “I feel this was worth it and I’ll accept the punishment.”

“Are you setting a good or bad example with that?”  She asked. Penelope shrugged.

“I don’t know.  That’s why they’re your parents and I’m not,” she answered.  “Deciding what’s a good and bad example is above my pay grade.”

Gabi shrugged and nodded, heading back over to Miles, Tarah, and Lexine most likely to tell them what Penelope had told her.  She didn’t have any problem with that considering that that meant her warning would also be distributed to the other three. She corralled Alice and Irvine, called Barkley to her, and led the group home.  She’d make up another folder later for the information the kids had given her. It might not be an official file, but she certainly didn’t want to lose it. All in all, it had been a very productive day.