The planet was green and moist and covered in tall, beautiful trees. The foliage was dense and full of brilliant and colorful fruits of all varieties, but there was one in particular that was especially common: bananas.

It was a monkey’s paradise.

Jacob and Dexter had asked Praiseworthy to research which planet would be the most hospitable for a group of friendly and loyal but not-very-bright space monkeys, and Praiseworthy found one that not only was home to the most varied banana population of any planet in the universe, it was mostly uninhabited and would keep the space monkeys from getting in too much trouble.

At least, unless they started cruising around the galaxy again in their old spaceship.

Jacob watched Dexter walk around with Rufus, excitedly pointing out great things about the new planet, from the sparkling waterfall that would give them perfect water to drink, to all of the different types of fruit, and the many places where he could sleep. Jacob marveled at the way Dexter was so good with the monkeys. He didn’t even have any pets, unless you counted his fish, which Jacob had to admit were quite well taken care of.

Sarah sat down in the grass underneath a tall tree and watched Dexter play with the monkeys in their new home.

“Do you think we’re going to have to leave Dex here?” she asked.

Jacob laughed. “We might.”

Dexter walked back over to Sarah and Dexter holding Rufus’s hand, and said quietly, “Rufus has something he wants to say.”

Rufus let go of Dexter’s hands and scrambled over into Sarah’s arms and gave her a big hug.

“Aw,” she said. After a little while Rufus let go of Sarah and gave Jacob a hug as well.

“Thanks for messing up Mick’s ship,” Jacob said.

Rufus started to cling to Dexter, but Dexter shooed him away in such a strong way that Jacob was surprised.

After Rufus walked sadly away, Boris approached the group. He solemnly placed bananas in front of Sarah, Jacob, and Dexter. He looked them over one by one with his brown eyes and then turned and walked away. Jacob supposed that was a moment of appreciation, Boris-style.

Sarah and Jacob stood up, knowing it was just about time to leave. Dexter was staring at the monkeys.

“They’ll be all right, Dex,” Sarah said.

“We can come visit sometime,” Jacob said.

Dexter just nodded. Then he was thrown to the ground as Rufus swooped down from a tree onto his back.

Dexter laughed and cried and gave Rufus one last hug. “You’ll be fine, pal,” Dexter said.

Rufus stood watching vigilantly as Dexter, Jacob, and Sarah re-boarded Praiseworthy and blasted off into the sky. Dexter waved until he couldn’t see any of the monkeys any longer.

The spaceship was very quiet as they flew through space, back through the colorful space kapow detour, and back to the solar system and toward their planet, which was still safe and secure and waiting for them, thanks to their heroism.

As they neared Earth, Jacob sat alone in his room aboard Praiseworthy, watching old campaign footage of himself on his Telly. He hadn’t won, and the campaign already seemed like a distant dream.

But he was proud.