Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 459

“ I am an old , old monkey . I have lived so many lives , and one day my time will come . The time where I will leave this world and rejoin the heavens . I have stayed in this zoo for long enough . Little girl , did you know I was King of my own monkey empire ? They were loyal as can be to me . Only now they have passed , and what is left are their descendants . Goodness knows how they are getting along ,” Then , he became desperate . He hopped off his branch and scraped at my knees , pleading , “ Oh I need to know . I need to know if my kingdom is still all right ! I don ’ t want to spend the last of my days in an old zoo ! I want to be with my friends and family ! Please help me !”
“ Alright !” I insisted , pushing him back a little . “ Where is your kingdom anyway ?” “ In China .” “ What ? But we ’ re over in America here !”
“ Child . I have journeyed on foot to go from China to India , and have had plenty of nature hikes before , so this should be no problem .”
“ Do you know how far America is from China ? How am I supposed to help ?” “ Little actions can result in big things ,” he hinted wisely .
So I fished out the keys from my pocked and unlocked the door quietly , so nobody would hear . Then I leaned against the wall and started to hum , pretending not to notice . Then I gave one final glance to Sammy as he slipped out silently from that crack of the door . Before exiting , though , he gave me a final bow , as a sign of unlikely friendship between an immortal monkey god and a 14-year old girl , formed in a small conversation that took less than ten minutes . I could have sworn I saw him wink at me .
I watched as he crawled out of his enclosure and into a nearby dense forest . I watched as he began a new journey .
A journey back home .