Monkey June Stories

Story Five

Monkey June was a very curious girl. Her grandpa used to tell her when she was very little that she was as curious as a little monkey. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why she became such a huge fan of monkeys as she grew older. Or maybe that was just a coincidence. 

We may never know what inspired Monkey June to love monkeys so much, but she definitely was a girl who loved monkeys. 

If you’ve been paying attention to her story up to this point, you already know that just about everything she owned had some kind of monkey theme to it. You even know how she got her name, which happens to have the word ‘Monkey’ right in it! You probably also remember how she went on a secret mission to discover why there was a huge monkey face in the Maintenance Building at her school, and how she and her friends found a bunch of carnival-related games and booths and signs and things stored in the back of that building in the dark.

You probably also remember that after she and her friends found an underground tunnel back to their school, Monkey June was more curious than ever about what all that stuff was for—and she was determined to find out.

When she woke up the next day, she started planning her next secret mission immediately. She would go to school as usual and go about her day as usual. But when it was lunchtime, she would ask the lunchroom attendant if she could use the restroom. Then she’d go to the little kids hallway, go through the door marked ‘Custodian Use Only’, go down the stairs, go through the tunnel, make sure no one was in the Maintenance Building, and get a good look at that stuff again. She hoped that she could be back in the lunchroom before anyone noticed her missing. 

It was the perfect plan—except for one thing: Nothing about that day happened ‘as usual’.

That morning when Monkey June was getting some breakfast, her mother reminded her that she had an orthodontist appointment that day, and that it was during school time (which never happened!). Monkey June’s mom told her that her dad would come and get her at lunch time, take her to the appointment, and then drop her back off at school when that was done.

That was very strange!

Monkey June decided that she’d just have to do her secret trip the next day…but on that day one of her teachers said that she needed help rearranging some things in her classroom, and asked Monkey June if she would mind eating her lunch with her while she helped with the rearranging. That was very strange! None of her teachers had ever asked her to help them during lunch before. Of course Monkey June wanted to be helpful, so she said she’d be happy to help. She decided she’d have to do her secret mission the following day…

But the next day Monkey June couldn’t carry out her plan because she realized that she hadn’t brought a flashlight. That was very strange because she was sure that she had put her favorite flashlight into her monkey backpack before she had gone to bed the night before. How could it not be there when she needed it? She thought about asking Chill Phil if she could use his flashlight, but he didn’t know anything about this mission, and she kind of wanted to do it herself. If she told him, he might want to come along or something. She certainly wasn’t going to go walking down a dark tunnel without a light, so she decided she’d have to try again on Monday.

By the way, can you guess what kind of flashlight Monkey June’s favorite flashlight was?

But Monday and Tuesday of the following week were also busy days filled with strange and unexpected events. And then she forgot to bring a flashlight again on Wednesday. Once again, she was sure that she had put it in her bag. But when she needed it, it wasn’t there! That was very strange!

Monkey June was beginning to think that she was terrible at planning secret missions…or maybe she was just a very busy girl who didn’t really have time to carry out secret missions. Either way, she was starting to get very frustrated.

Finally, the day came when everything was just right. She had brought a small flashlight. She didn’t have any appointments. She was able to get to the Custodian door at just the right time. It wasn’t locked. She went in…

…she clicked on her tiny flashlight…

…she went down the concrete stairs…

…and down the dark, dark tunnel…

…and up the concrete stairs at the other end…

…and she found herself in the dark, dark Maintenance Building…

…and she didn’t hear anyone clanging around in there working on broken lawn-mower-ish things…

…and she made her way to the back wall where the carnival things…

…WERE NOT THERE! Nothing was stored against the back wall at all! Monkey June shined her monkey flashlight across the entire wall—up, down, left, and right…and saw that there was absolutely nothing there. It was empty. Nothing but wall.

That was very strange!

Where could it all be? It hadn’t been set up on the playground or in the field next to the school; she would have noticed it that morning.

Had someone stolen it? Had the school thrown it all away because it was from some old carnival years ago and it was no longer needed?

Where had it all gone?

Back in the lunchroom, she joined Marilyn and Carolyn and she told them about the missing stuff.

“Weird,” Marilyn said. “Where do you think it went?”

“I have no idea, but I’m still going to come up with a plan to find it.”

“What if it can’t be found?” Carolyn said. “You’ll just get in trouble if you keep sneaking over there looking for something that doesn’t exist.”

“I don’t know,” Monkey June said. “I just don’t like mysteries that can’t be solved. I’m curious. It’s in my nature.”

“Well, how ‘bout you get curious about what’s for dinner at my house tonight,” Marilyn suggested. “My mom said you should come over tonight. We can work on homework together and you can eat with us.”

“That sounds great,” Monkey June said. “I’ll ask my mom, and—”

“Oh,” said Marilyn, “Don’t worry about that. Your mom already said it’s okay. My mom already asked your mom. You can just come home with me right after school.”

“Oh,” Monkey June said. “Great.” That was very strange, though. Usually the girls would come up with a plan and then they’d ask their mothers. Half the time the moms would say ‘no’. The moms didn’t usually make the plans for them and agree on everything ahead of time. Monkey June had a favorite saying, though: ‘Don’t look a gift monkey in the mouth.’ The real saying had something to do with horses, but Monkey June liked to invent new ways of saying things that included monkeys, so that’s how she liked to say it. She wasn’t sure why anyone would want to look into a horse’s mouth for any reason, but that didn’t matter to her; Monkey June always loved visiting a friend’s house.

“Can I come over, too?” Carolyn asked.

“Of course you can!” Marilyn said. “We can talk about what Monkey June has planned for her birthday this year. It’s getting close. What do you want the three of us to dress up as this year, MJ?”

“That’s right! It is getting close,” Carolyn said. “You’re so lucky that your birthday is October 31st, MJ. That makes it super easy for everyone to remember.”

Monkey June wasn’t too worried about her birthday yet, though. She hadn’t even come up with any group costume ideas. She had a mystery to solve, and her birthday was still a few weeks away. She was happy that she would get to spend the evening with her two friends, though. She had been so busy over the past week that she felt like she hadn’t had time to see them at all.