When the old keeper forgot one latch, the 400-pound silverback reached through the steel

hated strangers making a lesson out of his life. Linda visited once in October and stood before it for a long time without touching the wall.

The plaque said only:

Thomas Barrett
Keeper
1998–2025
He showed up.

I kept Tom’s notebook in the behavior office, in the cabinet where we stored records too important to throw away and too personal to file with ordinary continue reading …