Monkey June Stories

Story Six - Part One

Once there was a little girl named June. You might think that her name was ‘June’ because she had a birthday in June, but not this girl. Her birthday was in October—on the last day of October, actually. Her name was actually short for ‘Juniper’. No one called her that, though, except her mother once in a while if she was in trouble.

June was never any trouble, though. She was a cute, active little two-year-old girl whose only interests were spending time with her parents and running around exploring her world.

One summer—the summer before her third birthday—her parents decided to take her on a special trip. June was an only child (because her little brother, Corey, hadn’t been born yet) so her parents planned a lot of their family adventures around June and they were always looking for activities she would find fun and interesting.

That summer they had already taken her to the beach for the first time (she had been totally amazed at the size of the ‘big water’)—and her second time, and her third time. The beach was definitely one of her favorite places. They had taken her to a water park. They had taken her to a summer carnival. They had taken her to a fancy restaurant for the first time (and they would not do that again until she was at least four, they decided). They had even taken her to the zoo for the first time—where she had definitely enjoyed the monkeys more than the other animals; in fact, they could barely drag her away from them.

But their big vacation plan that summer was to take June with them on a two-week trip to a beautiful tropical island.

The family packed for their big trip, including everything they would need for summer fun, but all June cared about was her little stuffed monkey that she had to have with her everywhere she went.

June called her stuffed monkey ‘Monkey’. If she had been a little older, I’m sure she would have chosen a more interesting name, but she was not yet three years old, so ‘Monkey’ was the best name she could think of—and it really did fit him perfectly.

With everything packed, June and her parents set out on their trip. They had the best time! The beautiful tropical island where they were staying had swaying palm trees, white, sandy beaches, and the clearest, bluest water that June (or any of them) had ever seen.

The thing about the island that made June laugh and squeal with joy every day was…there were monkeys there! These monkeys were not in a zoo, but walked around (and climbed and swung around) as free as can be. And they liked to play tricks on people! You had to be careful when eating outside, because a monkey might appear suddenly and snatch a chip or half a sandwich right out of your hand and quickly disappear into the nearby forest with it.

The people who lived on the island knew every monkey that lived around the hotel where June and her parents were staying. Each monkey had its own personality, and the people of the island had even given them names that fit their personalities.

‘Grabber’ was a monkey who liked to…well, grab things out of your hands when you least expected it. ’Pushy’ was a monkey who would run up and just push you for no reason—or maybe the ‘reason’ was that he just thought it was funny. There was a monkey called ‘Jumper’ who would jump up into your arms like he wanted a hug, but then he wouldn’t let go for a long, long time—which could be more than a little annoying if you had somewhere you needed to be where you didn’t need a monkey attached to the front of your body. They called one of the monkeys ‘Mama Monkey’, because she had lots of little kid monkeys with her all the time. Someone told June and her parents that Mama Monkey might be the daycare provider for all of the other monkeys in the area.

During the second week of their trip, June and her parents had the surprise of their lives while they were enjoying some snacks on the beach. A monkey appeared that they had never seen before! Every monkey they had seen on the island up to that point had been covered with brown, dark brown, or almost-black fur. This new monkey, though, had orange fur!

For a while this orange monkey sat on the sand some distance away and just looked at them. June waved at him. The monkey moved a little closer. He seemed very curious about them.

The monkey slowly moved closer and closer until he was right in front of June. He reached out his little monkey hand and carefully touched her stuffed monkey, Monkey—as if he had never seen a small monkey letting a human girl carry him around with her. He patted Monkey on the head a few times. Then he moved back a little bit and looked at the family intently.

“I wonder if he’s hungry,” June’s dad said.

“He’s not looking at our food," June’s mom said. “I think he’s fascinated with June’s monkey.”

“Monkey!” June said, pointing at the orange monkey.

“Yes, June,” her dad said. “That’s a monkey, all right. I’ve never seen an orange one, though. That’s got to be rare.”

“He seems friendly,” June’s mom said. “His fur is so pretty!”

“June’s not afraid of him,” June’s dad said. “And this one’s not playing any tricks, so that’s nice.”

“Lu-twe-sen!” June said cheerily.

“What’s that, June?” her father asked.

“Lu-twe-sen! Lu-twe-sen!” June repeated.

“I don’t know what that means,” June’s father said.

“Don' be ‘fraid! Lu-twe-sen!” June explained.

“OH!” June’s mother said. It’s the Bible verse I taught her! Luke 12:7! ‘Don’t be afraid!'”

“Don’ be ‘fraid! Lu-twe-sen!” June said again.

“It’s her first Bible verse,” June’s mother explained. “I can’t believe she remembered it.”

So it seemed that June had decided not to be afraid of this new monkey. But the new monkey did turn out to have a trick. Without any warning at all, he jumped towards June. As quick as lightning he snatched Monkey out of June’s hands and ran off into the forest so fast that he looked like a disappearing puff of orange smoke.

June started crying, of course, and her parents did their best to calm her down.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” her dad promised her, “we’ll get your Monkey back.”

June’s mother wasn’t so sure. She whispered to June’s father, “We can’t chase a monkey through the forest. We’d never catch him.”

“No, but we can ask some of the local people what they know about this orange monkey. They know everything about these little guys. I’m sure they can tell us something about this orange monkey.”

They packed up what was left of their picnic lunch, wondering why the orange monkey hadn’t tried to grab any of their food like most monkeys did. Then they picked up June and headed back to the hotel.

They knew exactly who to talk to at the hotel about monkeys. It was an old man who worked there named James. He knew the most about all of the monkeys around the island, and he loved talking to the guests about the local monkeys.

As they described the orange monkey to James, he sat down on a nearby chair. His face became gravely serious.

“No, no, no,” he said shaking his head. “Not that one.”

“What do you mean?” June’s mother asked.

“He’s bad,” James said. “Very bad. Dangerous. Stay away.”

“Dangerous how?” June’s father asked. “He didn’t seem dangerous. He just took her stuffed monkey. He didn’t even take any of our food.”

“We call him…Mango Monkey,” James said, his voice deep, ominous, and soft.

“Mango Monkey!” June said suddenly, clapping with excitement. She was at an age where she loved learning new names for things.

“I get it,: June’s mother said, “it’s because he’s orange! Like a mango!”

“He only eats mangoes,” James said.

“Oh,” June’s mother said.

“And he is mango-colored,” James said. “He is the only monkey that color.”

“That is very strange,” June’s father said.

”Mango Monkey!” June said again.

“Yes, dear,” June’s mother said. “He’s the monkey who took your monkey, Monkey. That sounded weird. Anyway, we’ll find him. Don’t you worry.”

“Do not find him,” James warned. “Stay away from that monkey.”

“Mango Monkey! Mango Monkey! Mango Monkey!” June said, laughing and spinning in circles as she said it, as if she couldn’t wait to see him again.

A few hours later, June and her parents were back at their favorite picnic spot on the beach, but this time the only food they had was several large piles of…mangoes. They had unripe mangoes, ripe mangoes, overripe mangoes, sliced mangoes, grilled mangoes, and even some mango juice. It was all there, sitting out in the open—a great feast of mangoes. They were obviously hoping that a certain mango-loving monkey would smell all of that delicious mango goodness and come to investigate.

But they sat there for quite some time, and there was no sign of Mango Monkey.

“He has to smell all this stuff,” June’s mother said. “The whole beach smells like mangoes now.”

“Maybe he’s not coming to check it out because we’re all sitting here,” June’s dad said.

“Mango Monkey!” June said.

“Maybe we should pretend to be asleep,” June’s mother suggested.

“Like normal people would just go to sleep on a beach right next to a feast of mangoes?” June’s father said a little skeptically.

“Plenty of people nap on beaches,” June’s mother insisted. “Besides, what does Mango Monkey know about what ‘normal people’ do?”

“Mango Monkey!” June said.

“Fine,” June’s dad agreed. “Let’s try it.”

June’s parents stretched out their beach towels, lay down, and pretended to be asleep.

“Mango Monkey?” June asked quietly. Her parents didn’t answer. June decided to do what her parents were doing. She lay down near her mother like it was nap time, but she didn’t close her eyes.

A few minutes later, June saw something orange moving towards them very slowly and cautiously. It was Mango Monkey. June reached over and gave her mother a poke. Her mother didn’t respond; she was fast asleep.

June reached over and shook her father’s shoulder. There was no response from him except a snort and a snore. He was asleep, too.

June lifted her head a bit and saw Mango Monkey approach the irresistible feast of mangoes. She saw that he was still carrying her stuffed monkey, Monkey. She hoped that Mango Monkey would put down her monkey, scoop up a bunch of mango stuff, and run off into the woods, leaving her stuffed monkey behind.

But that’s not what happened.

He did scoop up a bunch of mangoes, but he kept the stuffed monkey in his furry arms along with everything else. Then he started walking slowly back towards the woods.

June was a very small girl, but she was smart enough to see that there was a difference between how fast a monkey moved carrying a light stuffed animal and how fast a monkey moved carrying a bunch of heavy fruit and a stuffed monkey.

She decided to chase after him. She could move much faster than him; she was sure of it. She jumped up and ran over the sand towards him yelling, “MANGO MONKEY!” over and over like some kind of revenge-crazed maniac girl on a mission—which, if you think about it, she pretty much was.

She caught up to him pretty quickly and almost grabbed him.

Once Mango Monkey realized that he was being chased, he tried to speed up, but the stuff he was carrying really slowed him down. He refused to let go of any of it, though.

June got so close to him once or twice that she felt his fur when she grabbed for him—but then he’d put on a little more speed and get ahead of her so she couldn’t reach him. Soon they were right at the edge of the woods. June looked back quickly—just once—to see if her parents were chasing after them to help her catch Mango Monkey. They weren’t. They were sleeping on the beach, just as she had left them.

A few seconds after that, Mango Monkey disappeared into the woods— and June disappeared into the woods after him.

Continued in Monkey June and Mango Monkey - Part Two