Judged

Fictional story about being judged for outside appearances…

There was a zoo who’s main attraction was the gorilla exhibit. Day in and day out, it was packed with people surrounding it to view the very lively gorilla. The zoo prospered and marketed the attraction to gain even more momentum to would be visitors and increase revenues.
There was a man standing just outside the zoo entrance, with a small hat for donations, he performed as a street mime. As the visitors came to see the gorillas, he became more popular, and suddenly the small hat became a large donation bucket. This bucket was filled everyday. The zoo keeper became suspicious of the man – after all he was taking money out of his hands right?
Then, the gorilla got sick, and became lethargic and stale to visitors. The visitors began to lose interest, and then the gorilla had to be taken into care elsewhere, and was no longer at the zoo. However, the mime still performed and still the bucket was filled.
The zoo keeper came out to the man and wanted to talk with him. The zoo keeper says to the man, “I see that you are widely popular and making a great amount simply from donations, you are obviously good at what you do…What if I paid you twice what you have in your bucket right now, everyday, if you were to put on a gorilla suit and ‘act’ like out gorilla did inside the zoo?” The mime accepted. The zoo keeper explained how he wanted the mime to ‘act’ like, and set the boundaries. Warned him of all the hazards, and explained to him where ‘not’ to go. (we will get back to these boundaries in a moment)
A few months went by and the man in the gorilla suit became even more popular than the previous real gorilla, he was really good at acting like a real gorilla! He was so good as to not even talk, but rather just make gorilla noises.(I know you just grunted, didn’t you!?!) The zoo was making money hand over fist, and the visitation became even more. As time went on, the zoo keeper had another brilliant idea: add more attractions. Right next to the gorilla exhibit, the zoo keeper placed a very active Lion.
Just as he thought, the Lion became another great attraction that soon overtook the gorilla attraction. Many visitors were now going to see the Lion instead of the gorilla.
This made the gorilla (man in the suit) very upset, after all, “he” was the main attraction, and now a Lion? Really? Then the ‘gorilla’ got an idea, he saw a crawl space over the top of the exhibit that ventured over to the Lion exhibit. He climbed up there, and hung onto the top of the Lion exhibit, teasing the Lion, who often tried extremely hard to grab the gorilla, he scratched and clawed as he attempted to ‘eat’ the gorilla.
The gorilla climbed over to the Lion exhibit often, hanging from the top, just out of the reach of the Lion, and day after day, the Lion would attempt to capture the gorilla, but was unsuccessful. Until one day, yep, you guessed it, he fell into the Lion’s Den. (sound like a familiar story yet?)
WOW! Oh My Gosh! The crowded Lion exhibit was in shocked beyond all belief. The visitors knew that the Lion was trying to get this teasing gorilla all this time, and now was the chance. They starred at one another, and then the Lion pounced, tearing after the gorilla with blazing speed. The gorilla started running around the Den and then it happened, he started yelling “Help…Help…Help” the gorilla shouted…and the Lion got him…pinned him down, and got close to the gorilla’s head (close enough to lick him), and said, “quite you idiot, you are going to get us both fired”!