Monkey June Stories

Story Six - Part Two

June’s mother woke up and looked around. She wondered why she was sleeping on a beach. Then she remembered everything: the trap they had set for Mango Monkey, her pretend nap, and…she must have fallen asleep for real!

She looked around for June. June was nowhere to be seen.

“Wake up! Wake up!” she yelled, shaking June’s dad. He sat up and looked around in confusion (like most dads do when someone wakes them from a sound sleep).

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We fell asleep! June’s gone!”

June’s father looked over at the feast of mangoes and saw that some of the mangoes were missing. Then he noticed some dropped mangoes between them and the woods. Two sets of footprints in the sand told him the rest of the story.

“She chased after him!” June’s dad yelled. “Mango Monkey was here and June went after him!”

“We have to find her!” June’s mother yelled. They both got up and ran as fast as they could, following the footprints in the sand.

June ran after Mango Monkey, not noticing how deep into the woods they were getting. The farther they ran, the taller the trees got, and the taller the trees got, the more they blocked out the sunlight. This meant that as June ran, the forest got darker and scarier.

Mango Monkey was always five or ten steps ahead of her. It was frustrating. June wondered how he was staying ahead of her so well. She suddenly realized that she was wearing shoes…and Mango Monkey was not. Maybe, she thought, it’s easier to run in the forest with bare feet!

“Don' be ‘fraid,” June said to herself as she stopped, quickly pulled off her shoes, and then continued running after Mango Monkey barefoot. “Lu-twe-sen.”

After running like this for a few minutes, June noticed that she actually was getting closer to him. Her idea had worked! But then something strange and terrible happened…

Mango Monkey jumped over a big, dark, gooey puddle (which couldn’t have been easy since he was still carrying a good number of mangoes and a small stuffed monkey named Monkey) and stopped on the other side of the puddle to look back at June.

He didn’t just look at her; he gave her a loud monkey screech.

June couldn’t believe he had stopped! Now she had him! She ran right through the big, dark, gooey puddle and stretched out her arms towards the screeching, orange—

—and she stopped. Her bare feet didn’t seem to want to leave the puddle. Mango Monkey screeched at her again, shook his head, and ran off.

June looked down at her feet. They were stuck in the big, dark, gooey puddle. She tried to pull a foot out. It wouldn’t budge! She was stuck to the puddle like it was made of glue! She tried to pull her other foot out. It was stuck, too! The harder she tried to pull her feet out, the deeper she sank into the puddle and the more the goo grabbed onto her feet. Soon she was stuck in it almost up to her knees!

June’s mother stopped running. She and June’s father had entered the trees, and for them, the forest was not yet so dark.

“Stop for a second!” June’s mother said.

“We can’t stop!” June’s father yelled. “We need to find June!”

“Didn’t you just hear a screech?” she asked. “It sounded like the screech of a small monkey. I bet it was him—Mango Monkey. If it was, I think we’re going the wrong way…”

Before June’s father could say anything, they heard a second screech.

“You’re right!” June’s father yelled. “Quick! This way!”

June’s parents ran as fast as they could towards the screech. A few minutes later, they found two little-girl-sized beach shoes lying on the ground.

June’s father noticed them first. “This is the right way!” he shouted. “Look! June’s shoes!”.

“Why would she take off her shoes?” June’s mother asked.

“Maybe so she could run more like a monkey?” her father guessed.

“Smart girl!” June’s mother said. “JUNE!” She yelled. “JUNE!”

There was no answer.

June’s mother picked up the tiny shoes and they started running again.

June wasn’t even three-years-old yet, but it didn’t take her long to notice that moving around so much was what was making her sink deeper and deeper into the gooey goo. She held still for a bit and thought about what to do next.

She started to feel afraid, but she reminded herself: “Jesus said ‘Don’ be ‘fraid’! Lu-twe-sen!”

Suddenly she realized what she needed to do. She grabbed onto a fallen log that was near the big, dark, gooey puddle, and she slowly, slowly, slowly pulled herself out of the goo. It worked! her legs were covered with gooey goo from her knees to her bare feet, but at least she was out of the puddle and could chase after Mango Monkey again.

She ran off in the direction that she had seen the little orange monkey run.

“Stop!” June’s mother yelled. “Stop running!”

“What?” June’s father asked as he skidded to a stop right before splashing through a big, dark, gooey puddle. “We need to keep—”

“Look at that puddle,” June’s mother said. “Why are there black, gooey splashes on that log? And small black, gooey footprints on the other side of the puddle?”

“She got stuck here!” her father said. “But she pulled herself out! And now she’s running again. I’m glad you saw that! One more step and I would have been stuck in that goo!”

The two of them ran around the big, dark, gooey puddle and ran deeper into the forest following the tiny black footprints.

The footprints didn’t continue for long, because some goo must have wiped off of June’s feet with every step she took, but at least they showed her parents which direction to go.

June stopped crashing through the trees and came to a stop on the bank of a roaring river.

There was Mango Monkey! He was standing on a huge log that had fallen over the river! He was still holding a large number of mangoes and June’s stuffed monkey. Beneath the log, a deep river rushed violently down towards the ocean over dozens of huge, sharp, dangerous rocks.

“Mango Monkey!” June said angrily.

Mango Monkey looked at her and took a few steps backwards on the log, moving farther away from her.

“Mango Monkey!” June said even more angrily.

Mango Monkey took one more step away from her.

June saw that the only way to catch him would be to walk out on that log. She looked at the rushing river below. She looked at the sharp rocks in the river. She looked at how far below her those sharp rocks were.

“Don’ be ‘fraid,” June said to herself. “Lu-twe-sen.”

June’s mother and father stopped crashing through the trees and came to a sudden stop on the bank of a roaring river. 

There was June! She was standing on a huge log that stretched over the river! Mango Monkey stood on the same log, facing June, his arms wrapped around a large number of mangoes and June’s stuffed monkey, Monkey. Beneath them, a deep river rushed violently down towards the ocean over dozens of huge, sharp, dangerous rocks!

“If June falls…!” June’s mother yelled.

“June!” June’s father yelled.

June didn’t turn around.

“She can’t hear us!” June’s father shouted. “The water’s too loud!”

June took a careful step towards Mango Monkey. Mango Monkey took a step away from June. June took another step towards Mango Monkey. Mango Monkey’s monkey-feet gripped the log with every step he took, but June only had regular human-girl feet…

With her next step, she lost her footing, sat down hard on the wet log, and slipped over the side…

June’s parents gasped, frozen in shock. They could never reach her in time! There was no way to save her! They could only watch her fall into the roaring…

But June didn’t fall into the roaring river! As she slipped, an orange, furry hand moved towards her as fast as lightning, grabbed her arm, and swung her back up onto the log. She was safe!

About a dozen mangoes hit the sharp rocks below and were pounded into orange mush by the force of the rushing river. The orange mush whooshed down the river to the ocean.

June was not whooshing down the river to the ocean, though—she was happily hugging an orange monkey in the middle of the log.

A short time later, June and her parents were back at the beach where they had prepared the feast of mangoes, and a small, orange monkey was giving June back her stuffed monkey named Monkey. June and her new orange friend then spent the rest of the day chasing each other around the beach, eating mangoes, and hugging each other every few minutes. They were obviously friends for life, now.

(June even ran into the ocean a few times and got the last of that gooey goo rinsed off of her legs.)

June’s mother and father sat on the beach near the feast of mangoes, watching June run and play with her new friend.

“I wonder why James thinks Mango Monkey is so bad,” June’s mother said.

“I don’t know,” June’s father said. “Maybe the island folks just don’t like their mangoes being stolen by him or something.”

“Maybe none of the island folks ever tried to give him a hug or act friendly towards him,” June’s mother suggested. “Maybe now that he has a friend he’ll be a changed monkey.”

“His new friend will be going home at the end of the week,” June’s father pointed out.

“True,” June’s mother agreed, “but let’s promise her that we’ll come back here every summer so she can visit her orange friend.”

“Great idea!” June’s father agreed. “Unless we’re missing something, and that clever little orange monkey really is dangerous somehow…”

June was overjoyed when her parents told her about their plan to come back to the island every summer. And from that day on, whenever they asked June why she hadn’t been scared to walk out on that log over the rushing river, she would remind them of the first Bible verse she had ever learned:

“Jesus said ‘Don’ be ‘fraid’! Lu-twe-sen!”