Monkey by Jeff Stone Read Free Book Online Page B

or sleepy. Others were lethal. Great care was taken to make sure only the safe ones were served at the Cangzhen dining table. Malao was often recruited to scour the forest floor in search of mushrooms. He was confident these were not only safe, they were delicious.
    In a flurry of leaves and flying dirt, Malao picked several handfuls and set them aside. Then he rounded up enough dry twigs and tinder to start a small fire with his new firestone. Once the fire was going, he found two long sticks about as big around as his little finger and carried them to the stream, along with the mushrooms.
    Malao dunked the long sticks in the stream. He would use them as roasting skewers, and he didn't want them to burn. Sticks freshly broken off a living tree would have been better because they wouldn't burn as easily, but he didn't see a need to damage a perfectly good tree just to make his life a little easier.
    When the sticks were sufficiently wet, Malao stuck one end of each in the bank and began separating the large mushroom caps from their stems. He rinsed each cap in the stream before sliding it onto a skewer. The stems he tossed into the flowing current.
    In no time, the mushrooms were roasting over the open flames, filling the air with an irresistible aroma. So irresistible, in fact, that Malao soon found he had a visitor. The white monkey.
    Malao saw the monkey high in a nearby tree. It wasstaring at him with its single eye. A clump of matted hair and dried blood was stuck to one side of its head.
    Malao did his best to ignore the creature, but it kept staring. He knew monkeys normally ate mushrooms, so he assumed it was hungry. It was probably in pain, too. When Malao was down to his last two mushroom caps, he spoke to the monkey.
    “Would you like some?” Malao asked. He stepped away from the fire and held out the stick. To his surprise, the white monkey scurried down from the tree and cautiously approached him.
    Malao stood perfectly still, his arm outstretched. He had seen firsthand what kind of damage the monkey could do when it wanted to take a stick from someone.
    The monkey gently took the far end of the long mushroom skewer and slowly pulled it from Malao's hand. Malao expected the monkey to race off into the trees, but it didn't. It sat down and began to eat the remaining mushrooms.
    Unsure of what to do next, Malao just stood there. When the white monkey finished, it politely handed the skewer back to Malao. Malao couldn't believe it.
    He had an even harder time believing what happened next.
    The white monkey moved closer to him and rose up on its hind legs, its right hand extended. Malao reached out, too, and the monkey grabbed his hand. The monkey pulled Malao's hand to its nose and took a deep breath.
    Malao kept his eyes fixed on the monkey's mouth. He knew what lay behind those lips. The monkey's mouth began to part, and Malao fought the urge to yank his hand away. Something deep inside him told him to leave his hand right where it was. He was glad he did.
    The white monkey planted a kiss on the back of Malao's hand, then released it and raced back up into the tree. A moment later, the monkey returned with the decorated stick from Cangzhen in its teeth. It dropped the weapon at Malao's feet and scurried off into the treetops.
    Night had settled in, and Malao found himself still on the ground near the stream. He was too tired to try to locate a suitable tree to spend the night in, so he curled up at the base of a small willow. The low-hanging branches made him feel safer. He'd waited and waited for the white monkey to return, but it hadn't. He was disappointed. He thought he had made a new friend.
    Malao began to wonder what it would be like to go through life without any friends. He decided it might be a lot like going through life without any family. What a horrible thought.
    Malao twitched. He suddenly realized
he
might go through life without family or friends. After all, he was completely on his own now.