“Your friends ran away, tiny man,” a familiar voice said in my ear. “What are they doing, leaving you here by yourself?”
I raised my head and spit. There was gritty dirt on my teeth and gums. I felt a fuzzy hand on my neck and craned it to see Trébone, orange and black in the moonlight, smiling at me. Nearly a dozen chimps surrounded us.
“No melons today, Marlin?” one laughed.
“This doesn’t look like sugarcane,” said Screecher, picking up the rod and lasso. He tossed it over my head to another chimp, and they made a game of keeping it in the air above me.
“Each of us was snared with this,” said Trébone, “and once is enough.”
The chimpanzees shook with laughter, slapping their chests and hopping up and down.
“Maybe we catch you, huh?” Blue Boy snatched the rod from the air and lassoed me around the neck. He leaped over my back and pulled me up to my knees. “That how you do it?”
“Easy now,” Trébone said, reaching to take the rod away.
Blue Boy slapped the orangutan’s hand. “That’s how they did me!”
I dug my fingers at my neck, trying to get between the wire and my skin. “Huuuhh!” I gasped for air. The chimps tittered. I felt my face swell with blood.
“That’s enough,” Trébone ordered. “Loosen it up!”
The folds of his face bunched up near his eyes, and he glared at Blue Boy.
The wire slacked and I could feel the blood in my head and chest reconnect.
“I was just playing with him,” Blue Boy murmured. But he didn’t remove the noose from my neck.
Trébone leaned close to me.
“I hear you went to the jaguar like I told you,” he said. “Was he the one who made you talk?”
“He was,” I said.
“That jaguar is funny.” Screecher laughed heartily. “A boy who talks!”
“Too bad he can’t make you smart!” said Blue Boy.
“We caught a talking boy!” Screecher hooted, and many of the apes joined in. “Let’s make him do some tricks!”
“Did he tell you why?” Trébone asked, leaning closer and whispering so the other apes couldn’t hear.
“He didn’t. But I fell and cut myself and he licked the cut and healed me.” I held out the palm of my right hand, which was untanned and plump, the lines of a palm just starting to settle in.
Trébone leaped back. “That’s powerful magic!” he cried out. The apes around him seemed surprised at his reaction, and he tried to compose himself.
“It feels weird,” I said of the new skin. “Like, I can feel my heartbeat in it all the time. And it’s a little warmer than my other hand.”
“Very strange,” Trébone mused. “I’ve heard of this but never seen it with my eyes.”
“I’ve never even heard,” said Blue Boy, who still had the noose around my neck. “And I say it’s unnatural.” Some apes murmured in agreement. “I say we kill him!”
Several more cheered. The noose jerked tighter.
“We do no such thing,” Trébone growled to the crowd. “The jaguar chose this boy. We don’t mess with one like him.” The other apes shrank at the sound of his voice, but Blue Boy was unconvinced.
“Then what?” the chimp snarled. “He’s in our home with catchers. You want this around your neck, Trébone?”
The orang considered for a moment. I sensed the crowd wavering between the two.
“I’m sorry I’m in your place,” I spoke up. “I really didn’t want to come here. It was my father who ordered us in.”
“His father,” Blue Boy said, “the catcher man.”
“He’s doing a special show tomorrow, in another part of the zoo. He wanted us to take three of you,” I said, looking around at the angry faces. “We were just going to keep you in mobiles for the night, you know, those little cages that can move. It would be a quick show, the guests would look at you, and then we’d drop you off back here. No harm done. Maybe extra treats?”
“Well, it looks like the show’s over.” Trébone smiled. “We’ve chased your friends out.”
“Now they see who’s strongest.” Blue Boy beat his chest, and the other chimps followed suit.
“Yes, I see that,” I said very cautiously, “but I’m afraid they’ll come back. And more of them.”
“Then we’ll fight again!” Blue Boy hollered.
The apes beat their chests and hooted.
“You won’t be able to,” I said. “They’ll bring nets and guns and drag you away from here. They might kill you.”
The chimps went quiet at that. They must have seen guns when they were captured in Africa.
“If you come with me,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I can promise you won’t get shot.”
Blue Boy started to laugh, but Trébone raised his hand to him.
“I only need three of you,” I went on. “We’ll go out together. You’ll spend the night in the mobiles, and I’ll make sure you have extra food. But we have to go now, because they’ll be coming soon with nets and guns.”
Trébone looked around the circle at his apes. “Can we trust you, boy?” he asked, turning back to me.
“I give you my word.”
That cracked him up. “Your word!” Trébone laughed.
I smiled awkwardly, and the chimps didn’t look convinced.
“I swear to you,” I said. “On my honor. You’ll be safe.”
“Men have no honor,” Blue Boy said.
“But they have guns,” Trébone answered. “They don’t need honor.”
With that he snatched the rod from Blue Boy’s hand and lifted the noose up and away from my neck, then swung it around and latched it onto Blue Boy’s wrist.
“What’s this?” Blue Boy shouted.
Trébone picked a second rod off the ground and tightened the noose around his and Screecher’s arms, binding them together.
“You said ‘never trust a man,’” Blue Boy growled.
“I don’t!” Trébone answered. “But this is just a boy, and one who can talk. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get shot.”
The orang turned to me and extended the rod. “We’re in your hands, boy.”
Father was at the gate of the Monkey Maze with Tim and a dozen men. They had nets and knives and rifles. They were here to rescue me.
Imagine their surprise when I walked out from the trees with two chimps and an orang in my lassos, all ambling behind me docilely.
The astonished looks on their faces told me that, for once, I didn’t need words.