I drew a picture of the zarga for you.
Then there’s my parents. My father’s name is Randall, Randy for short. He was born and he grew up in a small town in Missouri called Trenton. He used to be in the Marines and he fought in Vietnam. My mother’s name is Belle, she was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She moved to the U. S. and married my father. They’re both computer consultants.
I remember when I was eight years old, I made up a new word. It was a great word, absolutely wonderful. Are you curious? Good. I’ll tell you the story.
"Glue, tail piece, needle" I said as my brother handed me pieces. I was building a model plane. "What do I do with this?" I asked. "Oh, you put that in the zarga bay" Bryant answered. "What? The zarga bay" Give that." I said grabbing the instructions. "That doesn’t say zarga, it says cargo!" I exclaimed.
"But I’d like to know what zarga means. Let’s find out." So that’s what we did. We walked over to Sara’s house. Knock, knock "who is it?"
"Spenser and Bryant."
"Oh, come in."
"Can you play?"
"Sure, just a minute."
It went like that for about five minutes, but finally she came out. "What do you want to do?" she asked.
"Look for a new word." I answered. "Let’s ask my mom and dad." So we went home. "Mom, dad, do you know what a zarga is?" I asked. "A zarga?" mom said. "Lets see, I don’t think so." "Dad, do you know what a zarga is?" I asked. "Hmmm, a zarga? No I don’t think so."
"Oh, that’s too bad" I said. But maybe they have one at the shopping center. So we rode our bikes over to the shopping center. When we arrived, we asked a clerk about a zarga. "Excuse me, do you know what a zarga is?" I asked. "Well let me see a zarga." He looked deep in thought. Finally he answered "no I don’t think we have that here." Disappointed we left.
"Maybe it’s a type of pet" I said. So we went to the Pet Store. We know the owner of the Pet Store so we went in. "Hi Greg" I said. "Oh, hi" he answered. "Do you know what a zarga is" I asked. "A zarga" he said, frowning. "No, I don’t," he replied. "Well , thanks anyway" I said as we walked out the door.
"Let’s try the S.P.C.A." Sara suggested. "Good idea. "I said. So we got on our bikes and started off. We stopped at the door, and waited. We heard people talking inside. So we knocked on the door. We heard chairs scraping. Then a big man opened the door. "Do you have a zarga?" I asked. "A zarga? No we don’t have a zarga," he said sounding very irritated. "Oh good-bye," I said. Then he slammed the door in our faces.
I sighed. "Let’s try the zoo" Bryant suggested. "Okay, but don’t make it too long," I said. We rode down to the zoo. We looked around for an information booth. "This is fun even if we don’t find a zarga," Sara said, looking at a tiger. We walked around, looking at animals for the next fifteen minutes. Finally we spotted an information booth. "Excuse me, but do you by any chance have a zarga," I asked?
( I would like to link to my favorite zoo, the San Diego Zoo )
"A zarga eh? I’ve never heard that word before. Let me see," he said going into a file. "No we don’t have a zargo, zargi, ahhhh zarga." "Oh, sorry to bother you," I said hiding my disappointment.
"I guess we can try the Aquarium now," said Sara. "Come on," I said "lets go to the Aquarium." We rode for awhile, stopping for a break here and there. We rode for about fifteen minutes before we saw the Aquarium. When we walked in, we saw a tour guide. "Does the Aquarium have a zarga," I asked? "A zarga" he said. "Why don’t you check around. Tell me if you find one," he said and winked.
( I would like to show everyone the Monterey Aquarium, with lots of pictures )
So we walked around looking at fish, sharks, and otters. "What’s that fish called," Sara asked. "Maybe it’s a zarga" Bryant exclaimed. That remark was followed with fresh excitement. Until I said " no it’s a Rockfish." Sure enough the label in front of the tank clearly said ROCKFISH. Next we went to the touch pool. "What is this?" I asked the lady pointing to something to me, looked like a zarga. "Oh, that’s a sea cucumber" she said. "Oh, " I answered.
Finally, we left. "How about going to a museum," Sara asked. "No let’s just go home," I said. Dejected, disappointed, and hungry we got on our bikes and rode home. On the way home no one spoke. We did not feel good and we were hungry. We were hungry but we had no money to buy food, so we rode on. When we finally got home, we were tired. We parked our bikes and walked towards the door. Suddenly, I saw a gray blur streak across the ground.
"A URO" I shouted, dashing after it. "A what?" Sara asked, running after me. "A Unidentified Running Object" I explained rounding a corner.
Then it stopped. I stopped with it, and Sara stopped behind me. I looked at it. It was a lizard. It had gray scales except for it’s head which was a bright green. It’s tail was long about four inches. It’s body itself was about three inches long.
"What is it?" Sara asked. "I don’t know." I looked around and saw that Bryant had said that. He stood there staring at the lizard.
"I know let’s call it a zarga" I said.
We agreed on this and that’s how we found a new word. By the way I let the lizard go, and he is a zarga.
I drew a picture of the zarga for you.
Oh boy! Here we go again. Except this time I think I’ll search the yard first.