Monkey Come Home (2 page)

‘
Y
ou are so seriously busted when Mum and Dad get home,’ Serenity said as she backed out of my room without taking her eyes off the monkey.

‘You’re not going to tell them, are you?’

‘Do you honestly think I would want that hideous thing living in our house, Avery?’

The monkey lowered his head and made a sad sound.

‘Now you’ve hurt his feelings,’ I said. ‘He only wanted to groom you.’

‘Oh right. Like I’m infested with nits or something?’

‘No. It’s just a friendly communal thing that monkeys do.’

‘Friendly?’ Serenity practically spat. ‘He ripped out half my hair and almost bit your finger off. Get things in perspective, Avery. He’s not a person. He’s a nasty, unpredictable little beast and he doesn’t belong in our house.’ She charged out of my room.

‘Where are you going?’ I yelled out after her.

‘To call the RSPCA or someone who cares.’ Serenity meant business, so I didn’t try to stop her.

The monkey scratched himself and looked confused.

‘She’s not that bad for an older sister, really, but she has this thing about people touching her hair. You didn’t mean to hurt her did you?’ I asked, without expecting an answer. But the monkey shook his head slightly. ‘Are you sorry for pulling her hair?’ The monkey definitely nodded. It seemed like he could understand everything I was saying. ‘What should we do?’ I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, jumped across my bed and leapt through the open window. I stuck my head out to watch him scamper across the lawn and climb the fence into Elsie Birkett’s backyard.

‘Good luck, little guy,’ I said, hoping that Bagpipes wasn’t around.

I went downstairs to find Serenity holding the telephone receiver in one hand and feeling around her head for non-existent bald patches with the other. ‘Hello? Yes Hello. Could I please speak to…Helllooooo? HELLO! Stupid answering machine!’ She banged the receiver down.

‘Don’t bother. He’s gone now, anyway,’ I said.

‘Whatever. You’re still busted.’

‘Big whoop,’ I said, trying to act tough. But my chin started trembling, which didn’t help.

‘Don’t tell me you’re getting all sookydoo now?’

‘As if,’ I said. But the invisible hooks of sadness were tugging at the corners of my mouth. An image of my old toy monkey had popped uninvited into my head.

‘Avery, what’s the matter?’ Serenity’s genuine concern, and the realisation that my finger was
now throbbing, almost broke the floodgates. But I held myself together.

I reminded my sister of Earl. He was given to me on my fourth birthday. I used to carry him everywhere on my shoulders and pretend that he was real. He even came to school with me and had his own little seat at my desk. Two years later, we moved from the city to One Pebble Bay.

The removalists lost him on the way. I was devastated because Mum and Dad wouldn’t take me to search for him on the highway. I think they were secretly glad because Earl had become a bit shabby and they thought that we should’ve grown apart by then.

The only thing that cheered me up was when Dad told me that Earl had hitched a ride and gone to explore the world. He promised me that one day Earl would return to find me.

Serenity stretched her arm around my shoulders. ‘Nice story little brother. But Earl was stuffed, and the nasty biting one is real. And you know that a real monkey couldn’t possibly have lived here. Believe me, it’s better this way. He’ll find his way back to his real home.’

‘Where do you think that is? I asked, peeling her arm off me.

‘I don’t know. Maybe he escaped from the circus or somebody’s private zoo. Maybe even Africa.’

‘Der. That type of monkey doesn’t even come from Africa.’ Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of scratching at the window. It was the monkey with a cauliflower under his arm! He pushed the vegetable through the window and followed after it, then he rolled it across the floor and lifted it into Serenity’s lap.

‘It’s a peace offering,’ I said. The monkey broke off a chunk of cauliflower and lifted it to my sister’s mouth. ‘See! He’s offering you a piece.’

‘He stole that from Mrs. Birkett’s vegetable patch,’ she said.

M
y parents have a dental surgery called Open Wide! They are both dentists and hate us munching on lollies all day, so there is always a big bowl of fruit in the kitchen. Mum had called to say they would be home in ten minutes, which gave me just enough time to sort a few things out.

I packed all of the fruit that we had into a box and filled a bowl with water. Then I put them in my room with the monkey. He must have eaten something from Elsie’s garden though, because he
didn’t even touch the fruit. He showed more interest in my computer’s screensaver and tried to trace the paths of the zooming stars with his finger. I hoped the simple game would keep him entertained for a while, but left the window open in case he needed to get out.

Serenity had never been given flowers before, let alone a cauliflower. It must have softened her up a bit. She promised not to tell Mum and Dad about the monkey until I found out more about him. We sealed the deal by spitting on our hands and shaking them, just before the front door opened.

‘Sometimes, Barry, you really are the giddy limit,’ Mum said to Dad as she followed him in. ‘One more minute in Shed Shack and you would have been scraping me off the ceiling. Hi kids! How was your day?’

‘Same old,’ I answered.

‘Ditto,’ said Serenity.

‘Wonderful to have such expressive offspring,’ Dad said as he ferreted about in the kitchen.

‘April, there’s nothing to eat.’

‘Well if you hadn’t spent so long looking at tools you’ll never need for projects you’ll never finish, we could have bought groceries. Now you’ll have to go shopping tomorrow.’

Dad pulled his head out of the fridge. ‘I’m starving now.’

‘Eat some fruit.’

‘There’s none left,’ he said, inverting the bowl as if a bunch of cherries would magically drop out. ‘Who ate all the fruit?’

‘Avery.’ Serenity didn’t miss a beat. ‘Two apples, four bananas, a mango, a pawpaw and a peach.’

‘Impressive,’ Dad said. ‘We’ll build him up into a front rower in no time. What are we doing for dinner, April?’

‘Friday’s your night to cook,’ Mum said.

‘Well there’s nothing but a cauliflower in the fridge, so it looks like we’re eating out.’

‘Yay!’ Serenity cheered. ‘Can we go to Keeper’s Cottage?’

Keeper’s is my favourite restaurant. It is decorated with all kinds of excellent stuff that’s been collected over the years by an old beachcomber called Sam Hurley. The fish doesn’t taste too fishy and is caught locally, and they make the chips big and chunky. I was worried about leaving the monkey alone, though.

‘I’m not coming,’ I announced. ‘All that fruit has spoilt my appetite.’

‘It’s family time and you’re coming whether you eat or not,’ Mum said. ‘So wash your hands. Quick sticks!’

Pretending not to be hungry when everyone else was eating was a real challenge. Serenity made a drama of savouring every mouthful and licking her lips excessively. ‘This chowder is just divine,’ she said in a posh accent, slurping the soup and rolling her eyes.

‘Are you sure you won’t try some, Avery?’

‘Positive,’ I said, and fidgeted with my bandaid.

‘What happened to your finger?’ Mum asked.

‘Paper cut,’ Serenity jumped in.

‘Looks serious.’ Dad winked at the girls. ‘Might even need a tetanus shot from Doctor Hardie.’

Everyone laughed, except me.

‘
B
arry, I think there’s somebody in the house,’ Mum said as she turned the car into our driveway.

‘Look! Up in Avery’s room.’ My window was glowing and flickering with changing colours.

‘Chill out,’ Serenity said. ‘Geek Boy obviously left his computer on again.’

When we walked into the house Mum turned the lights on very quickly. ‘Something’s not right,’ she said. ‘I’m sure I can feel some other kind of presence here.’

‘I can feel something, too,’ Dad said, putting his arms around Mum’s waist and trying to smooch her. He always got frisky after going out for dinner. I grabbed the chance to leave while Mum was being distracted.