Free Monkey Come Home by Bernard Gallate Page B

off. Get things in perspective, Avery. He’s not a person. He’s a nasty, unpredictable little beast and he doesn’t belong in our house.’ She charged out of my room.
    ‘Where are you going?’ I yelled out after her.
    ‘To call the RSPCA or someone who cares.’ Serenity meant business, so I didn’t try to stop her.
    The monkey scratched himself and looked confused.
    ‘She’s not that bad for an older sister, really, but she has this thing about people touching her hair. You didn’t mean to hurt her did you?’ I asked, without expecting an answer. But the monkey shook his head slightly. ‘Are you sorry for pulling her hair?’ The monkey definitely nodded. It seemed like he could understand everything I was saying. ‘What should we do?’ I asked.
    He shrugged his shoulders, jumped across my bed and leapt through the open window. I stuck my head out to watch him scamper across the lawn and climb the fence into Elsie Birkett’s backyard.
    ‘Good luck, little guy,’ I said, hoping that Bagpipes wasn’t around.
    I went downstairs to find Serenity holding the telephone receiver in one hand and feeling around her head for non-existent bald patches with the other. ‘Hello? Yes Hello. Could I please speak to…Helllooooo? HELLO! Stupid answering machine!’ She banged the receiver down.
    ‘Don’t bother. He’s gone now, anyway,’ I said.
    ‘Whatever. You’re still busted.’
    ‘Big whoop,’ I said, trying to act tough. But my chin started trembling, which didn’t help.
    ‘Don’t tell me you’re getting all sookydoo now?’
    ‘As if,’ I said. But the invisible hooks of sadness were tugging at the corners of my mouth. An image of my old toy monkey had popped uninvited into my head.
    ‘Avery, what’s the matter?’ Serenity’s genuine concern, and the realisation that my finger wasnow throbbing, almost broke the floodgates. But I held myself together.

    I reminded my sister of Earl. He was given to me on my fourth birthday. I used to carry him everywhere on my shoulders and pretend that he was real. He even came to school with me and had his own little seat at my desk. Two years later, we moved from the city to One Pebble Bay.

    The removalists lost him on the way. I was devastated because Mum and Dad wouldn’t take me to search for him on the highway. I think they were secretly glad because Earl had become a bit shabby and they thought that we should’ve grown apart by then.
    The only thing that cheered me up was when Dad told me that Earl had hitched a ride and gone to explore the world. He promised me that one day Earl would return to find me.
    Serenity stretched her arm around my shoulders. ‘Nice story little brother. But Earl was stuffed, and the nasty biting one is real. And you know that a real monkey couldn’t possibly have lived here. Believe me, it’s better this way. He’ll find his way back to his real home.’
    ‘Where do you think that is? I asked, peeling her arm off me.
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe he escaped from the circus or somebody’s private zoo. Maybe even Africa.’
    ‘Der. That type of monkey doesn’t even come from Africa.’ Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of scratching at the window. It was the monkey with a cauliflower under his arm! He pushed the vegetable through the window and followed after it, then he rolled it across the floor and lifted it into Serenity’s lap.
    ‘It’s a peace offering,’ I said. The monkey broke off a chunk of cauliflower and lifted it to my sister’s mouth. ‘See! He’s offering you a piece.’
    ‘He stole that from Mrs. Birkett’s vegetable patch,’ she said.

Bananas

    M y parents have a dental surgery called Open Wide! They are both dentists and hate us munching on lollies all day, so there is always a big bowl of fruit in the kitchen. Mum had called to say they would be home in ten minutes, which gave me just enough time to sort a few things out.
    I packed all of the fruit that we had into a box and filled a