Monkey June Stories

Story Eight - Part Two

June’s mother and father could never have imagined that taking their three-year-old (well, nearly four-year-old) daughter to an island for a peaceful vacation would turn into the greatest lost-treasure event that the world had ever seen, but that’s exactly what happened.

James did everything he could to keep the news secret, but news that big just can’t be hidden. By the next morning people had come from all over the island to see the spot where the brass monkey had been found.

June was even interviewed by a local reporter—with her parents’ permission, of course.

“So your name is June, is that right?” the reporter lady asked June.

“Yep!” June said. “I’m almost four.”

“Oh,” the reporter said. “That’s nice. That was going to be my next question. So you’re the little girl who found the brass monkey on the beach, is that right?”

“Yep, down by the water.”

“And what were you doing when you found it? Looking for treasure?”

“No, I was walking and kicking sand. I was sad that I didn’t see my friend since we got here.” June looked sad just talking about it again.

“Oh,” the reporter said. “I see. Well, I’m sure your friend was excited when you showed her what you had found.”

“My friend’s not a ‘her’, he’s a monkey: Mango Monkey.”

“Oh,” the reporter said, looking surprised. “Surely you don’t mean the orange monkey who disappeared a few months ago. I did a story about that. The local people considered him quite dangerous. They were kind of…happy when he disappeared. Are you saying that this dangerous monkey was…a friend of yours?”

June couldn’t answer because she had started crying after the reporter said that Mango Monkey had disappeared. June’s father stepped over and scooped up June in his arms.

“This interview is over, miss,” he said firmly to the reporter.

The next few days were a whirlwind of activity. Hundreds of people from all over the island gathered on Mango Beach every morning at sunrise. Many would paddle out into the ocean on surfboards, in fishing boats, on homemade rafts, on logs of driftwood—anything they could find that would float. They would jump into the water and dive down as far as they could go, to see if they could find any sign of the treasure. Others arrived with scuba gear or snorkeling tubes and swam around for hours looking for treasure beneath the waves.

Just when June and her family thought that Mango Beach couldn’t possibly get any more crowded, even more people arrived. These newer folks had heard or read about the treasure and had rushed to the island to see if they could find it. Every day people arrived from farther and farther away. There were people from the USA, from South America, from Europe, from Africa, from Indonesia, from China, from Korea, and from Australia—just to name a few of the places.

June’s father suggested that it might be best to end their vacation and head home. It was now impossible to visit any beach on the island—especially Mango Beach—and it was impossible to do much of anything else, either. It was impossible to eat in any of the restaurants; they were crowded and busy night and day. June and her parents were lucky that they already had a hotel room, because there was nowhere to find one on the island anymore. There were so many people on the island that many of them were sleeping on the beach at night.

“We can’t leave!” June said. “We didn’t see Mango Monkey!”

“Wherever he is,” her mother said, “I don’t think he’ll want to come anywhere near all of this…insanity.”

“Your mother is right, June,” her father said. “It’s probably best if we just head home and come back next year after all of this treasure excitement has died down.”

“Or…maybe we could…find the treasure,” June suggested.

“I don’t think we could,” June’s father said. “There are so many people out there looking for it already, and after days of searching no one has found anything. I think that brass monkey you found might be all that’s left of that old treasure. The sea could have moved it anywhere in the past three hundred years.”

“Let’s just go home, June,” her mother said.

“No!” June insisted, looking like she might start crying again. “I have to see Mango Monkey!”

June’s mother and father looked at each other and seemed to come to a decision.

“It might be best not to reschedule our flight home,” June’s father said. “With so many people coming and going from all over the world, it would be crazy to try to change it. Let’s just leave on the day we originally planned. That means you have three more days, June. If you see Mango Monkey during that time, great. If you don’t…I’m sorry, but we’ll have to head home.”

“Or I might find the treasure,” June said. “Can we stay longer if I find it?”

Both of June’s parents smiled at the idea that a nearly-four-year-old girl might find a treasure that hundreds of treasure hunters couldn’t find.

“Of course, dear,” June’s father said. “If you find the treasure we can stay here as long as you like.”

June’s parents didn’t want to go anywhere near Mango Beach the next morning, but June insisted.

They packed a picnic lunch and went there. Of course, there were so many people camped out on the beach that not one inch of space was available for a family picnic.

“Guess we should just eat back in the hotel parking lot,” June’s mother joked. “But that’s probably full, too.”

“I know where we can go,” June said. “Forest.” She pointed to the part of the forest that she had run into a year ago when Mango Monkey had taken her stuffed monkey, Monkey, and June had chased after him.

“It might be nice to walk around in the trees,” June’s mother said. “That’s the only place around here that isn’t full of people.

The family hiked over to where the forest met the edge of the beach. June immediately started skipping off into the woods as if the place were as familiar to her as her own bedroom.

“Slow down, June,” her father called out. “Don’t get too far ahead of us.”

“Lu-twe-sen,” June sang out as she kept going. The farther she went, the taller the trees got, and the taller the trees got, the more they blocked out the sunlight. June could still hear her parents not far behind her, and she kept saying ‘lu-twe-sen’, so she wasn’t afraid to keep going.

Soon she came to a big, dark, gooey puddle. She recognized that puddle! That meant she was on the right track.

“Don’ be ‘fraid,” she said as she walked around the big, dark, gooey puddle.

“June, where are you?” she heard her father calling from a distance. “You’re getting too far away from us!”

June thought about going back, or at least stopping for a while near the big, dark, gooey puddle to give her parents some time to catch up. Just then, she thought she saw a flash of orange in a clump of trees. She started walking that way…

There! She saw it again—this time more to her right. She left the path that would have taken her to the roaring river and went off into the woods towards where she thought she had seen the flash of orange.

A few minutes later, June was in a part of the forest she had never seen before. She was very far from the path. There was no sign of Mango Monkey anywhere—and she was completely lost. She could still hear her parents calling for her, but they were so far away now that she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“I’m over here!” she yelled, but the voice of a three-year-old who is nearly four doesn’t travel very far in a forest, so her parents didn’t hear her.

Just then she saw another flash of orange from behind a large, oddly shaped tree. Then she saw a familiar monkey face peek out at her! It was Mango Monkey! If monkeys can have smiles on their faces, that’s exactly what was on Mango Monkey’s face as he recognized his friend June. He jumped out from behind the oddly shaped tree and ran over to her. He gave her a big hug. Then she gave him a big hug. Then they danced around in circles for a while just being happy that they had found each other.

The calls from June’s parents still came through the trees once in a while, but they sounded very far away now. June wondered if she should stay with Mango Monkey or try to go towards where her parents might be.

Mango Monkey gave a screech to get her attention. June saw that he was waving her towards the oddly shaped tree. It looked like he wanted her to go over there and see something behind that tree.

June walked over to where Mango Monkey was, and as she came around the tree she saw something that you would never expect to see in a forest or on a tree. From the back side, the oddly shaped tree looked more like a tall, skinny, crooked, wooden closet—or something that might have once been a cupboard of some kind. Where you might expect to see a door, though, there was just an opening. June looked into the dark opening and saw wooden steps going down into the earth!

Mango Monkey made excited monkey noises and jumped onto the stairs. He went down them a little bit and made a gesture that obviously meant ‘Follow me!’.

June followed Mango Monkey down the dark steps.

“This is where you’ve been hiding!” June said as she walked carefully down into deeper and deeper darkness. “You found a place where people can’t bother you and call you ‘dangerous’. It’s a secret underground monkey house!”

The stairs went down quite a distance. It was so dark down there that June couldn’t see a thing. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, a light suddenly switched on. June saw that Mango Monkey was holding a flashlight!

“Where did you get that?” June asked him. Mango Monkey just gave her a confused monkey look.

Now that there was some light down there, June could see that she was standing on a wooden floor that stretched out farther than she could see. There were thick wooden beams above them.

“Did someone build an underground house in this forest?” June asked herself. “Who would do that?”

She saw a large heap of something next to the stairs. She pointed at it and Mango Monkey pointed the flashlight in that direction. June saw that it was a huge pile of old flashlights.

“Have you been stealing those?” June asked. Mango Monkey, of course, didn’t answer. “Looks like you’ve been stealing a flashlight and using it until it stops working—and then stealing another one.” She grabbed an old dead flashlight from the pile and opened it up.

“These are called ‘batteries’,” she said. “You just need more of these.” Mango Monkey gave her another confused look. June looked back at the huge underground room.

Mango Monkey began to jump around excitedly, and June realized that he wanted to show her around his secret underground monkey house. She followed as he took her through many different rooms. Some of them had bunk beds in them—there were lots of bunk beds. One of the biggest rooms had a fancy bed, a desk, and a large chair near a small table. It looked like their hotel room, but larger, and very old. The fancy room had a whole wall of glass windows, but the only thing she could see through the windows was sand and tree roots.

“That is very strange” June said. “Wait! This isn’t a house underground. It’s a ship underground!”

Next, Mango Monkey took her to a door that had more steps behind it. The steps went down to an even lower level.

“Down we go, lower into the ship!” June said as she followed Mango Monkey down the stairs.

This level of the ship was filled with cannons. They were lined up on both sides of a very long room pointing out of the ship through tiny windows. Some of the windows had piles of dirt and sand under them. They walked to the far end of the cannon room and Mango Monkey opened another door that led to even more steps going down.

The level below the cannons was nothing but storerooms on both sides. As they walked down the center of this level they passed dozens of thick, heavy doors locked with huge, rusty, iron locks.

“What’s in those?” June asked. Mango Monkey said nothing. June pulled on one of the old locks. It didn’t budge.

At the far end of the storeroom level, there was another door. June couldn’t imagine what might be behind this one.

Mango Monkey got very excited as they reached this door. Then he got very quiet and knocked on the door very softly. June noticed that he had knocked in a pattern: three knocks, then two, then one.

The door opened, and a monkey face looked out cautiously. Then the door flew open and a small brown female monkey and an even smaller orange-brown baby monkey jumped out and hugged Mango Monkey!

Back in the woods, June’s parents had come to the big, dark, gooey puddle. They didn’t see any footprints near it this time. They were glad that June had avoided the puddle—but without muddy footprints they had no way to see where she had gone.

They were pretty sure that she’d never want to go near the rushing river again, so they started looking around the woods in places that were nowhere near the rushing river.

They wandered around calling out ‘JUNE!’ and hoped that they’d hear her answering. For a long time, they didn’t see or hear any sign of her. But then, when they least expected it, June stepped out of the woods near them.

“June!” her mother shouted, running over to hug her. “You gave us such a fright! I’m so glad we found you!”

“I think I found you,” June said. “But we can go home now.”

“Go home?” June’s father said. “But I thought you wanted to stay until you got to see Mango Monkey.”

“I saw him!” June said. “He was so happy to see me!”

“Really?” June’s mother asked. “So that’s where you’ve been! Where did you find him?”

“He has a secret house in the woods. It’s very secret. I don’t think he wants anyone to know where it is.”

“That must be why everyone on the island says he ‘disappeared’,” her father said. “I wonder how long he’s been living there.”

“I don’t know,” June said, “but he’s got a family now! I think he likes to spend his time with them instead of playing tricks on people.”

“That makes sense,” June’s mother said. “So you met his new family?”

“Yup,” June said. “He’s got a wife-monkey and a baby-monkey. They really like me! I have three monkey friends now!”

“That’s wonderful,” June’s father said. “But what about finding that treasure?”

“I only wanted to find that so I’d have more time to find Mango Monkey. But I found him instead, so I’m happy! You said the sea could have moved that treasure anywhere by now. Maybe no one will ever find it.”

June’s mother gave her a very proud look. “I’m happy you realized that a treasure ship isn’t as valuable as your friendship—even though it feels strange to say that my daughter has ‘monkey friends’. You just reminded me of another Bible verse I love: ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ That’s Matthew 6:19-21.”

“That’s a long one,” June said.

“But definitely some good verses to keep in mind,” June’s father said.

June and her parents enjoyed the rest of their stay as best they could with so many people on the island. They tried to find James and give him an update on Mango Monkey, but he must have been super busy with so many people on the island; they didn’t see him at all for the rest of their stay.

After a few more days they took their scheduled flight home.

June was happy to be home, but she made her parents promise to take her to the island again the following summer. They all hoped that the treasure-hunters would be gone by then.

June was already looking forward to next year’s trip, and every night before she went to sleep, she remembered to say a prayer that her friend Mango Monkey and his family would be safe in their secret underground monkey house.

From time to time she pulled her special memory box out from under her bed and looked at the two newest things that she had added to her collection: a small monkey figure made of brass, and a very old, very large gold coin.

She always smiled when she remembered how she had found the strange coin on the floor of Mango Monkey’s ship-house as she was leaving and had slipped it into her pocket.