Bananas

 

"A jungle forest lulled in the waning daylight, distant screeches echoing over a grassy dusk. Monk twisted and fidgeted, scratching himself as he milled over the day's events. The human ruins stretched out over the hilltop, an obelisk surrounded by many strange buildings and streets, overgrown by decay.

The human world, Monk thought. He was a larger, younger monkey, with a hard eye and a handsome jaw. The females loved him, but he didn't see them often. He was always up on the hilltop, looking out over the human ruins, deep in thought.

Things had been going strangely lately. The bananas had been disappearing, from the usual shelters and trees nearby. Monkeys were going hungry. The smallish, piggish ones were not. Pretty obvious. But Monk lived by himself. He wondered how the others were doing.

The piggish monkeys came by, always in packs. Monk rolled his eyes and wandered off, not interested in a conversation. He approached the usual gathering place, and found a young mother crying.

'They took him! There were three of them! They said he had to be castrated. Something's going on!'. Monk looked shocked, then nodded at her. 'Where?' 'That way,' she pointed, 'They said we couldn't have any food until that was done.'

She went back to her crying, as Monk wandered off, a little off the direction she had pointed. He had heard of this. Of course it was the piggish monkeys. They had been saying that for a while. No castration, no food.

Monk passed something. His stomach tightened. Shit. A baby monkey's arm. This was getting serious. He nudged it and grunted. Monk had things to do.

Two piggish monkeys snorted in content over a banana. 'Whole place is under our control.' The other piggish monkey nodded. 'We have all the food. What'd you expect?' They snickered softly, then heard something in the woods.

'Hello?' They looked around curiously. 'You better knock that off. We have all the food!'. They looked at each other worriedly, as a sharpened spear tore through the first piggish monkey's chest. The second piggish monkey looked at it in shock, then was grabbed violently from behind. A loud crack sounded, followed by groans of suffering, then the area fell silent.

Monk grabbed a stash of bananas, then headed back down the trail. He took a fresh, smaller banana and wrapped the baby monkey's hand around it as he passed the small limb again. He left it there, and smiled.

Monk had things to do."

Short Stories