February 25, 2026

Old Ben
by T.G. Smith

An immigrant zoo worker navigating unfamiliar snow and baffling English idioms finds himself haunted by an unexpected presence during his nightly rounds. The story explores isolation, cultural displacement, and the eerie persistence of memory when the world feels both strange and unwelcoming.

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​Paki smiled, watching the young man growl in front of Shiva’s cage to amuse his girlfriend.  He had seen Shiva teach this lesson to impudent zoo visitors before.  The young man growled again and clawed the air in front of the cage.  Shiva watched him with her head lowered and tail twitching.  Turning languidly in her narrow cage, Shiva took a step away.  The couple laughed and just as their mouths opened wide, Shiva soaked them with urine in the way female tigers can by spraying a fine mist directly behind themselves.  Paki turned away, covering his face so they wouldn’t see him laughing.  He pulled his zookeeper coat up around his neck and hugged himself.  Chattanooga was hot and muggy in the summer, but oh-so cold in the winter.  His hometown, Jacobabad, was always hot.

“I saw that,” said Bailey, Paki’s boss and head zookeeper.  “You should warn visitors about Shiva.”

“I am sorry, Sir,” said Paki in heavily accented English.  “But they tease the animals…”

“I know, Paki.  But that stuff smells bad.  Shiva’s going to get us sued.  Some rich lady in a fur coat’s gonna get sprayed and then what?”

“Rich ladies in fur coats don’t come here, Mister Bailey.”

“And that’s why!” Bailey exclaimed.

Snow started to fall and Paki held out his hand.  “What’s this?” Paki asked.

“Haven’t you seen snow before?” Bailey asked. 

“This is snow?”

“Indeed,” Bailey said.  “You better help Sara feed the monkeys.  After they’re taken care of, tell her she can go.  Then stop by the office.  I need to check on something.”

“Yes, Sahib,” Paki said and headed for the kitchen where Sara, the zoo’s nutritionist, was preparing the monkey’s afternoon meal.

The big cats, Raja and Shiva, had been fed.  The antelopes and other grazers had their food strewn about their compound in the morning.  But the monkeys have no self-control.  If you fed them once per day, they would gorge themselves and be starving by morning, meaning Sara had to mix their meals twice per day. 

“Hi, Sara.” Paki called.  “Need help?”

“Yeah.” Sara replied, indicating a bucket of fruits, leaves and legumes near the door.  “You can feed the big monkeys.  I’ll have the pip-squeaks’ food ready by the time you get back.”

“Yes, Sara.” Paki said and grabbed the pail.  “I’ll be back in a few shakes of the tail of a sheep,” he said trying to remember the idiom he had heard earlier that day.  He looked to see if Sara was impressed.

“Okay.” was all she said.

The snow intensified as Paki walked to the Chimps enclosure.  After feeding them, Paki stood and marveled at how the snow was changing the appearance of the zoo.  All of the animal houses were covered with white caps.  The directional signs were becoming obscured as the blowing snow attached itself to the signs’ surfaces and the informational signs on each enclosure became unreadable in the darkening dusk.  Returning to the kitchen, he said “I am ready to feed the pip-squeakish monkeys now.”

“That’s okay, Paki.  I’ll do it when I finish here.”  Sara was putting meat scraps in a bowl.

“Who is that for?” Paki asked, “All of the animals have been fed.”

“Do you know who Old Ben is…was?” Sara asked.

“No.” Paki responded.

“When I first started here, we had an old lion.  He had such sad eyes.  I felt sorry for him, so, when I fed him, I would sit on a bench outside his enclosure and talk to him while he ate.  Over time, I told him all my secrets.  I told him my goals, my successes, my failures.  I told him about my relationships…my disappointments.”

Sara looked at Paki and tears formed in her eyes.  “Then he died.  They told me when it happened, but we were really busy that day so I didn’t get to see him before he passed.  That afternoon, I prepared all the meals as usual, including Old Ben’s.  I was on the way to feed him when I remembered that he was dead. I took his meal to his enclosure anyway.  I sat his bowl in the same place as usual and I sat on the bench outside his enclosure for a long time.  I told him that I would miss him and that he had been a good friend to me.  Finally, I just left the bowl of food and went home.  When I came for the bowl the next morning, the food was gone.  I know it wasn’t Old Ben, but I kept taking his dinner to him every night…and every morning, when I came to collect the bowl, the food was gone.  I often wonder what’s eating it.”

Sara looked at Paki, her expression one of sadness.  Paki was disturbed.  He wasn’t sure what was worse, the ghost of a lion roaming the zoo or the haunted, grief-stricken look of his friend, Sara.  “You said it wasn’t Old Ben, but it is him, isn’t it?” said Paki.  “Old Ben is stalking though the zoo at night.  The food you give him each night is keeping him from eating all the animals!”

“No, of course it’s not Old Ben.” Sara said, exasperated that Paki had misunderstood her.  “I’ve got to go before the weather gets worse.  I’ll feed the small monkeys.  I’ll skip Old Ben tonight” Sara said reluctantly and put the bowl of scraps back in the fridge.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Paki was unsettled by this new information.  Stepping outside, he was confused by the snow now covering all the paths and sidewalks.  Where should he walk?  He could see the light in front of Bailey’s office, so he tip-toed through the snow to the office.  He closed the door behind him and turned to see Bailey sitting at his desk on his cell phone. 

“Okay,” Bailey said into the phone, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Bailey looked at Paki as if some monumental decision had to be made.  “Paki, I need a favor.”

“Yes, Sahib.” Paki replied.

“The security company called and the guy who’s supposed to be here tonight can’t come because of the snow.  Apparently, it’s bad up on the mountain.  I need someone to stay with the animals overnight.”

“No!” Paki responded immediately.  “The ghost of Old Ben is here.  I cannot stay overnight.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Bailey said, wondering how Paki knew about Old Ben.  “Just sit in this nice warm office and call me if anything happens.  I need to go before I get stuck here.”
Bailey grabbed his coat and started for the door.

“Please, Sahib.  I cannot stay!” Paki pleaded.

“The only place Old Ben’s supposedly been spotted is up at his old enclosure.  Just don’t go there.  You’ll be okay.  Just call me if anything comes up.”

“No…” Paki said to the closing door.

Paki rushed to the window to watch Bailey shuffling through the snow to his car.  “No, no…” groaned Paki as Bailey drove away.

Paki looked around the office.  He went to Bailey’s desk and sat slump shouldered.  There was an in-box, several folders, pens, paper clips and a three-hole punch.  What he didn’t see was a phone.  Bailey was on his cell phone constantly during the day, but apparently there was no land-line.

“Uh-oh.” Paki thought.  He used his cell phone for international calls and he kept it in his apartment.  Money was tight and he couldn’t afford to waste any minutes on games or frivolous phone calls or surfing the internet.  He didn’t have anyone he needed to call locally, and if there was an emergency, Bailey would let him use the zoo’s cell phone.  Paki went through the drawers, but he could not find a phone.

He went to the coffee bar nervously and poured a cup of hot water and added a tea bag.  There was cream in the mini-fridge, so he added a dollop and four teaspoons of sugar, since no one was looking.  He took the cup to the window and looked out.  The snow was falling fast and it had smoothed out all of the edges.  The nice, neat sidewalks had disappeared.  The signs in front of the entrance were topped with snow.  It was incredibly quiet.  Until he heard the growl.

It was a low and muted growl.  Paki jumped back, spilling his tea.  He squinted, looking for movement, any shadow that shouldn’t be there.  Nothing.  He remembered the security cameras.  He went to Bailey’s desk and moved the mouse.  The screen on Bailey’s desk lit up and sixteen cameras displayed their images all on one screen.  Paki scanned the images.  Was that movement in front of the office?

Paki rushed back to the window and looked out.  He scanned the zoo entrance.  He looked back toward the animal enclosures.  He searched the shadows by the restrooms.  Nothing.  Then he looked at the snow in front of the office.  Were those paw prints?  They were huge and they led toward the animal enclosures.  Paki ran back to the monitor.  In the closest enclosure, he could see the gazelles.  They were agitated and huddled at the back of the enclosure.

“It’s Old Ben!” Paki thought.  “He’s hungry and Sara didn’t feed him!”

He should call Bailey, but… no phone.

How could he stop a ghost lion from killing the zoo animals?

“Think, Paki.  Okay…okay.  Maybe, if I can give him his food, he’ll leave the other animals alone.”

Paki knew the kitchen was locked.  He went through Bailey’s desk again and found a key ring with several unlabeled keys on it.  It was worth a try.  Paki slipped on his coat and grabbed Bailey’s ski cap off the peg next to the door.  He thought about taking the umbrella, but with the snow blowing sideways, the umbrella would be hard to handle and it wouldn’t provide much shelter from the snow.

“Here goes not a thing.” Paki whispered to himself and slipped out the door.

The paw prints that had been there just a few minutes ago, were now barely shallow indentations, filled by the heavy snowfall.  Paki was surprised at his slow progress as he hunkered against the wind and the driving snow.  He searched the shadows, afraid of being stalked, but the blowing snow blinded him.  Off to his left, a puff of something’s breath came out of the shadows.  He stopped and stared into the dark.  The zebra enclosure!  Three zebras stood looking at him, their heads bent against the wind.  Paki looked around expecting to see Old Ben glaring at him from the shadows.  Why hadn’t he brought the umbrella!  At least it had a pointy end.  Maybe he could fend Old Ben off with that!  Wait!  Can you fend off a ghost lion with an umbrella?

Looking down each darkened alley way and the nooks and crannies of each enclosure, Paki hurried toward the kitchen.  The keys were impossible with gloves.  He took off the gloves, but without them, his hands became cold and clumsy.  His hand shook so badly, he could barely get the key into the lock.  He wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the thought of Old Ben peering at him from the shadows that made his hand shake so.  He looked over his shoulder as he tried each key.  As he found the right key, a low rumble from the vicinity of the monkey cages reached his frozen ears.  He quickly opened the door to the kitchen and slipped inside.  He had seen where Sara put the bowl of meat scraps.  He grabbed it and headed back outside. 

As he exited the kitchen, Paki heard the monkeys begin to howl and hoot.  It sounded as if they were terrified for their lives and he was sure he knew why.  Paki ran toward Old Ben’s enclosure, again feeling that the old lion was stalking him, hungry for his evening meal in the metal bowl in Paki’s hands.  As he rounded a corner, he felt a forceful collision as he was knocked to the ground, his shoulder and neck numb, the bowl of meat spilling out into the snow.  Paki moaned and got to his feet.  All he could see was a post with the directional signs atop it.  He scooped up the meat, refilling the bowl and trudged on to Old Ben’s enclosure.  He opened the gate to the enclosure and set the bowl of food inside.  He yelped as he felt the ghost of Old Ben pounce on him again, knocking him into the snow for a second time.

Paki vaulted to his feet, slamming the enclosure gate and running, slipping and sliding as fast as he could back to the office.  Once there, Paki collapsed into Bailey’s chair, panting heavily.  He checked the security monitor.  In the upper right-hand corner was a square labeled “Lion Enclosure”.  But the square was solid black.  That camera had been removed long ago.  All else was calm and serene.  Paki sat deep in thought.  What had he actually seen?  A ghost?  No.  Animals attacked and eaten?  No.  Was it all in his head?
​
The next morning, Bailey was late because of the snow.  Paki decided not to relate the events of the previous evening.  He needed to collect Old Ben’s bowl for Sara.  To his relief, Bailey volunteered to go with him.  The enclosure door was open and the bowl was empty.  
As Paki bent over to retrieve the bowl, Bailey asked, “Where did you get those claw marks on your neck?”

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Bio: TG Smith is a retired IT guy turned fiction writer who likes Science Fiction and History told in the first person.  He lives in Tennessee with his wife, Margaret, and enjoys traveling, trading stocks, reading about space travel and playing with his granddaughter.  See other stories by the author at everydayfiction.com and SpanktheCarp.com.