I gave myself ten minutes for the prompt, but I did not finish in time. I will mark where I managed to get when the ten minute mark was reached, and then went on to finish it all up.

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"What is the nicest thing you have done for someone?"

A few years ago, my family and I were at the St. Louis Zoo taking in the sights. We had stopped briefly for a bathroom break and to rest our feet from the continuous walking.

The bathrooms that we stopped at were located near the seal exhibit and I, being curious about the aquatic mammals, wandered over to watch them. There was no show going on at the time, but that did not seem to stop the seals from swimming about and being energetic. There was one seal among the others that appeared smaller, possibly younger, than the others. This one seal continuously darted about in the water and around it's fellow seals.

Feeling a little daring, mostly because there were no zoo employees to deter me, I reached through the guard rail towards the seals and * called to it like one would call a dog. I did not expect anything to come of my calling to them, but to my surprise the smallest seal swam up to where I was and leapt from the water just enough to touch my outreached hand.

I turned to my dad to tell him what I had just managed to do when I saw them. A woman and her young daughter were standing just a short ways off, watching me. I smiled at them and, only an instance later, I noticed the healing burn marks along the little girl's cheeks, neck and arms.

I don't know if I had any visible reaction to the girl's burns, but the manner in which she stared at the seals made me smile a little.

"Would you like to try?"

The girl was by my side in just a moment, with advice from both her mother and I to hold onto the rails tightly as she reached her tiny hand out over the water.

I called, whistled and clicked to the seals for several minutes, managing to get the same seal to come back each time. It would jump up and touch the girl's hand with the tip of it's nose, and the girl would giggle and squeal each time while I could not stop smiling. We finally had to stop as my family was ready to move on, and I'm sure that the girl's mother was ready, as well.

I did not get the little girl's name, but I hope that I made her trip to the zoo a little more memorable.

* = end of ten minute mark