Free Monkey Business by Anna Wilson

is, normally you eat them for Christmas, and it’s May now, so will they actually grow in time for Reggie to arrive? Cos, if I am getting Reggie for my birthday,
that is only one week away.’
    Flo put on her Mum-type voice and said, ‘Don’t worry about that. I’m sure it will be fine,’ which didn’t really answer Felix’s question, but that was all she
would say on the matter.
    After Felix’s mum had dropped Flo back at her house, Felix asked if he could go on the computer.
    ‘Why?’ Mum asked. ‘Haven’t you got some homework to do?’
    Felix crossed his fingers behind his back and mumbled, ‘I need the computer to do my homework, actually. It’s all about orang-utans and their Habitat, which is a very scientific word
which means “where animals live”,’ he added.
    The phone started ringing, so Mum ran into the kitchen to answer it, calling over her shoulder, ‘OK, but you’ll have to get off it when Merv comes in cos he’s got to finish his
science project for tomorrow.’
    Felix smiled. Using the word ‘homework’ had well and truly Put Mum Off the Scent.
    He went into the study and turned on the computer. A fizzy feeling built up in his tummy as he thought of how perfect life with Reggie would be. Maybe Reggie would even teach him how to swing
from the trees himself! Maybe once Mum had got used to the idea he might be allowed to spend one night a week up in the tree and he and Reggie could have sleepovers.
    Felix spent the next half hour surfing the Internet for information about orang-utans. He found a very interesting site that told him exactly what he needed to know:
    What do orang-utans eat?
    Orang-utans eat mostly fruit – their favourites are huge spiky fruits called
Durian
. These fruits smell terrible, and taste a bit like custard
and garlic, but orang-utans love them! Orang-utans also eat some flowers, honey, bark, leaves and insects.
    How many babies do orang-utans have?
    Orang-utans only have one baby at a time. There is a lot to learn about life in the forest and so babies stay with their mother and learn from her until they
are seven or eight years old – this is longer than any other mammal except humans.
    Where do orang-utans sleep?
    Orang-utans sleep in nests in the trees which they make every day from leaves and branches. Orangutans are arboreal, which means that they spend nearly all
their time in the trees and hardly ever come to the ground. This makes them different from other apes like chimpanzees, gorillas and humans, who all spend a lot of time on the ground.
    A fruit that tasted of custard and garlic? Felix wasn’t sure he wanted to have anything to do with that. And would he have to go around collecting insects for Reggie to
crunch on? No, Reggie would probably go out into the garden and find his own ants, Felix reasoned. And probably Mum would be pleased about that, because she hated it when there were ants’
nests on the patio in the summer. She usually went out and put ant powder down to try and kill them.
    Felix was about to shut down the site when Merv came into the study with his headphones on. He was wearing his worst kind of don’t-come-near-me-or-I’ll-flatten-you scowl, a beanie
pulled down as far as it could go without blindfolding him and a pair of jeans showing so much underwear he might as well have gone without them altogether and worn just pants.
    ‘Hey, low-life,’ Merv snarled. ‘Wot you up to? Let me guess . . .’ He peered at the screen. ‘Apes! I should have known. Figures anyway – takes one to know
one. Har, har, har!’
    Felix scuttled out of the room while his brother was too busy enjoying his own joke to thump him or throw something at him.
    He ran into the kitchen. ‘Mum! Did you buy any bananas or plums or any kind of fruit today?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Mum, looking puzzled. ‘Why?’
    ‘I’m – I’m
staaaaarving
!’ said Felix, putting as much feeling into his voice as he could.
    ‘Sorry? Am I hearing correctly? Or