The digital hand on the cover of Signs: A De-Extinct Zoo Mystery (book 2 in the series) was specifically placed because Elizabeth, the alpha female of the Gigantopithicus blacki troop at the Pleistocene BioPark, has been taught American Sign Language (ASL).
Here’s the first scene with Elizabeth, the heroine protagonist, and Milly Smith, the senior resident veterinarian at the BioPark (slightly abridged):
“Good morning, Elizabeth Barrett,” Milly said and signed, arms and hands moving carefully through the greeting.
Grape morning, Milly Smush. Elizabeth’s huge hand flashed through the greeting, accompanied by a low musical hooting that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
Milly propped her hands on her hips, frowning a mock-stern expression at Elizabeth’s purposefully jumbled welcome. “Not morning apple?” She said apple but signed melon instead.
Silly Milly Milly silly. Elizabeth bounced on her seat, hooting louder, enjoying the joke. When she stopped, she signed apple and waited until Milly repeated the motion.
“Apple.” Milly pushed the knuckle of her index finger into her cheek and twisted her hand. “Thank you, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth laid her hand against the plexiglass, and Milly pressed hers over it as though they were touching. The pinkish-gray skin of the giganto’s palm dwarfed hers, four times larger in all directions.
Slowly, Elizabeth slid her hand up the glass. Milly’s hand followed. Up went the ape’s hand and up went Milly’s until she stretched onto her tip toes.
Elizabeth hooted and stood to her full three-meter height, hand pressed on the plexiglass high above Milly’s head. She stared down at Milly, eyebrows raised, creating half a dozen deep curving creases on her forehead.
Upside-down smiles.
Elizabeth and Milly
The hands part is something I “borrowed” from one of my FAVORITE romantic comedies, Return to Me (2000). Yes, I love this movie, and I wish I’d thought of the story, and I was touched that an ASL signing ape—Sydney—drove the story.
In the movie, the press of the ape’s hand with the human’s hand through the glass becomes an amazing connection between what was lost and what is gained, as well as a symbol of what we as humans share with the animals on our planet.
