It was with some guilt that he realised he couldn't spend the weekend hanging out with his new friend but his father was finally coming down to join them in their new house and although still only a boy himself, Howard realised that it wasn't really appropriate for the small boy who had barely left his side in the past few days to be present for their reunion. Telling Vince had been one of the hardest things he could ever remember doing, the hurt shining out of those large blue eyes making him feel like some kind of traitor, like he'd double-crossed his best friend and sold him into slavery or sent him to a death camp, not merely told him they couldn't see each other for a couple of days. But then, this was Vince, and, as Howard had come to notice, his reactions weren't necessarily indicative of the seriousness of a situation. Even the strawberry bootlaces bought as a peace offering did little to console the young boy, who had spent most of the Friday afternoon lessons staring out of the window and sniffing loudly. Even his sketch pad was ignored! The neat line of pens that Howard would lay out for him before each class began, so that he didn't attract the teacher's attention by rifling through the pencil case partway through the lesson remained in an orderly row, untouched by the grubby but nimble little fingers of the budding artist.

By the time Howard reached his house on Friday night (the walk back having been spent in silence, although still in the company of his new shadow) Howard was quite beside himself with guilt and desperately racking his brain for some way to make it up to the little boy. Not being exactly an expert in friendships, Howard wondered if his mistreatment of the youngster was enough to end the relationship that had been slowly blossoming between them. As it transpired, the older boy needn't have worried as that evening his parents presented him with the ideal opportunity to cement his friendship with the young boy.

For many years, it had been a family tradition for the Moon family to visit the neighbouring Knaresborough Zoo in celebration of Howard's birthday. Although the zoo itself had clearly seen better days, Howard nonetheless felt an enormous sense of peace and perspective admiring the proud stance of the lion, the cheeky charm of the chimps, the wistful gaze of the elephant. He had, of course, assumed this tradition would now fall by the wayside, given that the zoo they had frequented was some 200 miles away but this would turn out not to be the case.

"So, Howard," began Mr Moon, as they sat around the large dining table following a particularly delicious meal, almost too full to move, "I've been thinking about your birthday and since you are going to be a teenager, I thought perhaps a change of scenery would be appropriate."

Howard nodded reluctantly. He knew it wasn't exactly practical for them to continue their birthday tradition, with the zoo being so far away, but it was yet another sign that he was growing up and things were changing and, although he had dealt with recent changes admirably, it still filled him with sadness to lose this final little piece of childhood.

"I've just noticed that there's a zoo in Colchester, much larger than 'old faithful' at Knaresborough, and a bit of a drive, but what do you say, shall we try it next weekend?" continued his father, with a grin.

"Really? Wow, yes!" enthused Howard, before realising how much he sounded like his young friend. Guiltily, he wondered if anyone had ever taken Vince to the zoo, or indeed if anyone ever helped Vince celebrate his birthdays at all. As if reading his mind, Mrs Moon, who had just returned to the table, carrying large bowls of raspberry ripple ice cream, joined in,

"Why don't you invite your friend, Howard? I've been telling Dad all about him and he's dying to meet him."

And so it was that a week later, Howard found himself waiting outside the house for Vince to arrive for their day out. It hadn't entirely been smooth sailing. His mother had insisted on speaking with Vince's mother before they took the young boy out for the day, and no amount of excuses from Howard had managed to distract her until eventually he had told her the truth, that Vince had no mother. He had then spent the rest of the week begging his mother not to say anything to Vince about his living arrangements, cringing every time his mother piled extra food on the boy's place on account of the fact he looked like he 'could do with a good home-cooked meal'. In addition to this, he had also asked his parents not to let Vince know it was his 13th birthday he was celebrating, as the young boy didn't know that he'd been kept back a year and Howard very much wanted to keep things this way.

Still, as Howard watched his young friend skipping happily down the street, shoelaces flapping, he considered that it had been worth all the stress. Vince was smiling widely, shuffling excitedly from foot to foot as they waited by the car as Mr Moon loaded a picnic into the boot. Howard noticed with amusement that Vince was once again wearing the red flares donated to him the previous week, in fact, with the exception of his school uniform, he had barely worn anything else! Today he had teamed them with a tight-fitting black t-shirt with a lion's head printed on the front in silver, and frilly sleeves, clearly designed for a little girl, rather than an 11 year old boy, a fact that had clearly escaped the strange little child.

Despite having managed to spill juice down his new cream t-shirt, the car journey over to essex had been great fun, playing I Spy and singing along with the car radio, but, as they neared Colchester, Howard suddenly realised that Vince had suddenly gone very quiet. Looking over, the small boy's eyes were wide (even wider than usual), and his hands clutched his stomach as he chewed his lower lip nervously.

"Hey, what's up?" Howard asked, concerned.

"Howard, I don't feel well, I don't feel well at all," Vince whimpered, a hand flying up to cover his mouth.

"Quick, pull over, NOW," shouted Howard to his father, recognising the signs of what was imminent.

As the car swerved to a halt, the young boy leapt from the car to vomit violently at the roadside. Within seconds Mrs Moon was by his side, holding his hair back and rubbing his back soothingly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," sobbed the little boy as he was passed a packet of wet wipes to clean up.

"It's ok honey, I'm sorry, I didn't realise you got car sick. You should have told us and you could have sat up front, that used to help Howard when he got car sick when he was younger."

"I didn't know. I, er, I haven't really been in a car much before," he admitted miserably, snuggling into the woman's arms as she stroked his hair and tried to calm him down.

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully and as Howard rushed towards the payment kiosk, dragging his dad behind him, he didn't notice Vince hiding nervously behind his mum, clutching her hand tightly.

"Mrs Moon, are the animals really big in there? What if they don't like me?" whispered the little boy, as he fiddled with his hair.

"Well, some of the animals will be big, but you don't have to be scared, they can't hurt you, I promise," the older woman reassured him, "now come on, let's go catch the others up."

At the counter, Howard, who had been left in charge of his dad's wallet, proudly announced, "4 please, 2 adults, 2 children."

The lady behind the counter chuckled, as she rang up 2 adults and 1 child on the cash register.

"Um, that's only 1 child," corrected Howard.

"But under 10's are free, your sister doesn't have to pay," smiled the cashier, handing the change back to the newly teenage boy.

Howard opened his mouth to say something but his dad dragged him through the zoo's entrance. As he looked back at the small boy, who still gripped his mother's hand tightly, he couldn't exactly deny that Vince did look at least a little bit like a very young girl, especially in his current outfit!

Once they got inside, Vince's fears were quickly allayed as he ran from cage to cage, babbling excitedly to himself and anyone else who would listen. Including the animals. As Howard watched him closely, it seemed like the little boy actually thought he was having conversations with the animals and would nod thoughtfully as the animals 'replied'.

"Did he say anything interesting?" joked Howard as the young boy seemed to be listening intently to the chattering of the chimp who paced near the edge of the enclosure.

"He was telling me about the zoo keeper over there," Vince pointed. "Apparently he fell over yesterday and landed in a pile of elephant dung!" The young boy giggled.

Howard just smiled, puzzled but quickly growing used to Vince's wild flights of imagination. At that point his parents caught up with them.

"Enjoying yourselves?" they enquired.

"Yeah," grinned Howard, "Vince was just having a chat with the chimpanzee."

"You can talk to the animals, huh? Like Dr Doolittle," smiled his father.

"Maybe more like Mowgli," joined in his mother.

"In flares," added Howard, as they all began laughing.

Vince's bottom lip wobbled as his eyes flitted between the 3 laughing people. He smiled nervously before asking,

"Who's Mowgli?"

"From the Jungle Book? The film? Have you really never seen the film?" Howard asked incredulously.

Following this revelation, Mr Moon had insisted that they stop at the video library on the way home to borrow a copy of the movie. Later that evening the family had sat down with large slices of cake and played the video, the young boy grinning and singing along with the songs. As the day drew to a close and Howard lay in bed, he smiled as he reflected that this had probably been his favourite birthday ever. The zoo had been even better than the one they used to visit and he finally had someone he could call a friend. Just as he was drifting off to sleep a small voice interrupted from the campbed at the other side of the room.

"Howard? Are you asleep?"

"No Vince, what is it?"

"Mowgli's pretty cool isn't he?"