Post by ral365 on Apr 29, 2010 22:58:48 GMT -5
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
A Monkey's Uncle
I was a freshman in college when I got the chance to take a tour of the Swallow Falls Research Center, the town's leading company in scientific experiments, and going there was like spending a month in Disney World in my book. In order to do some homework in my Biology class, I joined up with several other college students into a huge, white building, down grey hallways where a tall, blonde-haired man in a white lab coat, like mine, was showing us.
"Here at the Swallow Falls Research Center, we have experimentation strategies unlike any other. We have a wide variety of outstanding scientists who work with dozens of different animals from all across the world. Our animals have been vaccinated and treated any carrying diseases, and we only have the most domestic breeds in their species…"
As the man was lecturing on, I looked at some of the caged animals that the lab used. There were brown rabbits, dozens of grey and white mice and rats, and there was even a set of baby monkeys all together. Steve was the runt of the litter, er, the smallest one of all, but judging by how tiny all of them were, they were at least a week old, all the same breed. Steve was also curiously munching on some Gummy Bears that one of the scientists dropped from a bag of them in her pocket. Now I didn't have one of those typical moments where, if two people are truly made for each other, it's love at first sight, no disrespect to Steve, though. I was pretty neutral about the whole thing. One of the scientists, a brown-haired woman, took the monkey cage, and left the lab with it. By the time that was over, our tour guide was just done lecturing.
"Come this way, please…"
I stopped to take some last-minute notes about what he said in my notebook, but then, I heard some muffled screaming from a distance, and rushed back to see what it was. It went back down the hall, and looked through a pair of double doors labeled "Employees Only." I peeked through the glass windows, and the scientist put a mask over her mouth, and took out what looked like a shot full of red liquid. Steve himself got out of his cage, and the scientist gently reached her right hand out toward him, but then, he bit her hand, and started running away from the lab, screeching and ranting out like crazy! I ran away as fast I could, back to the tour that was already way ahead of me….
Finally, when I got back home that same night, I was about ready to turn in in the lab. But as I walked to the backyard, I heard some sad whimpering from up one of the trees in my backyard. I looked up and saw Steve cooing sadly on the highest branch.
Huh? How'd he get here? I thought. I didn't wanna talk out loud and scare him, knowing how much he'd been through already. But I didn't want to call the lab either. Who knows what might happen to him if he went back to that lab? I know monkeys aren't meant to be pets, and that wasn't my first intention when I found Steve, but somehow, I had to find a way to get him somewhere safe without bringing him back to the lab, or anybody who might do that.
But too late. Dad found me outside.
"Son?"
"Dad?"
One sound of our voice, and Steve rushed out of the tree, and started dashing for the picket fence, trying as hard as he could to jump over it, but he was too small to go for it. Dad, of course, was shocked.
"What's a monkey doin' in our tree?!"
"Dad, this wasn't my fault, I swear!!"
"How the heck did he get in here?!"
"He tried to escape the Swallow Falls labs, but I had nothing to do with this, I swear!"
"I'm gonna call them right now..."
As my Dad went inside to dial up on the phone, I saw poor, little Steve crying by the fence. I kept a good, hundred-foot distance away from him, but I really wanted to help the poor little guy out...
By the time the scientists showed up from the lab, the same man who was my tour guide lead a group of young men into my yard, and he took out a white pipe in his mouth. He aimed it at the frightened Steve, and blew a pink dart into his body. I gasped as I saw the baby monkey fall flat on the ground, motionless.
"Is he dead?"
"No, my boy. That was a tranquilizer dart; it just put him to sleep."
The scientists then put Steve in a small pet carrier, and put him in a white minivan back to the lab...
But then, the very next night, Steve was back in my yard!
"Huh? What are you doing here?"
Steve started freaking out again in the same tree I saw him before, and tried to find another way to get out, besides trying hard to jump the fence, and then not being able to.
"No no no…it's ok, don't be afraid…."
I thought fast at what I could do to calm him down. Then I remembered that one day he was snacking on a bag of Gummy Bears, and I rushed out into the kitchen, and grabbed a bag from the pantry.
"Hey, lookie what I got..."
Steve spun around, sniffed in the air, and scampered back up toward me. He snatched the treats from my hand, and gulped the entire bag in less than thirty seconds.
"Whoa…you sure eat fast for a little guy..."
Then we heard the lab trucks coming in again, and Steve started racing toward the fence again.
"When is that lab gonna realize that you don't wanna be there? It's as plain as the nose on my face."
Then my eyes went wide, and I looked back up at Steve....
When those scientists came back, I spoke to the tour guide again.
"Sir, I'm wondering…since this monkey's tried to escape so much, maybe you could just send him back to his natural habitat instead? I really don't think he wants to go back to the lab…"
"I'm sorry, son, but that monkey was bred in captivity. He was fatally wounded when we found him in Africa, and he was also without his mother."
I hung my head low.
"Mr. Lockwood, are you all right?"
I looked up. "I-I'm sorry, sir. I'm ok."
"Well, unless we can find a more suitable home for that little monkey, the lab is where he'll stay..."
Then my eyes went wide again.
"That's it!!"
The next day, I looked through my old chest of toys when I was a kid...
"Toy, check! Dad's old sweatband, check!"
Then I took the two back to my lab, and spent the entire day tinkering with them.
"Wiring enhanced! Chips installed! Antennae secure! Engage test subject!"
I took a video camera, and set it up in my dad's Tackle Shop.
"Son, what's all this?"
"You are gonna love this, Dad! Behold, the very first device that allows this noble creature to communicate with mankind! The Monkey Thought Translator!"
"Hungry!"
"How wise…"
"Hungry, hungry hungry hungry!!"
"Steve, no no no no!! Steve, no!!"
My Dad screamed as Steve ripped off half of his mustache…
Yeah, training Steve wasn't easy when I first adopted him. At first, my dad would not tolerate the idea of having a monkey for a pet, but when I made Steve's Monkey Thought Translator, I also inserted a safe hormone in his brain to make him domesticated to me, the same sort of instinct animals like cats or dogs have that make them so loyal and understanding to the people they know. Steve would know I was his owner, but he'd still have the same sort of instincts he had as a real monkey. I didn't wanna brainwash him into our society in any way. I just wanted to make sure that if I was gonna protect Steve, and that he couldn't even go home, I wanted to make sure he could easily adjust to our society. He'd also be able to communicate with me better with his new instinct, making me one of the very lucky exceptions to have a monkey for a pet and train it well. My goal was to make it so that he would understand his environment and who was his master, but also understand that I really did love him.
Oh, and why did I name him Steve? Well, while I was motivating to make Steve's Monkey Thought Translator, one of the scientists up there on my posters happened to be one of my favorites, Stephen Hawking. I quickly realized that this was a monkey talking through a mini-computer, just like him, so I decided to name Steve after him.
I kept Steve away from my inventions by giving him other things to toy with, like a simple pot and spoon to bang on, or simple objects like a sardine can to chew on. He had a really small attention span, so it didn't take much to keep him pre-occupied while I was working. In time, I also enhanced Steve's artificial hormone so he'd be able to be, to a certain extent…uh, housebroken, but he still kept the sort of spontaneous, insightful behavior of a real monkey, so it wasn't like I brainwashed him or anything. When he was trained enough, I let him roam the lab as he wanted since he knew his limits now, and after two weeks, I even let him be at the lab all by himself for an hour, and all he did was stare at a shiny wrench that was lying on the ground. Not a single thing in the lab was dirty, ruined or changed.
I giggled at seeing him so distracted when I came back. He's definitely ok, now.
That very same night, I woke up in the middle of the night hearing something strange. I turned on the lights and saw poor Steve in his little pet bed crying, just like he did on the day we met. I rushed over to him and knelt beside him.
"Steve, what's wrong, buddy?"
"Mama!!!"
My eyes welled up with tears just hearing him cry out that one word.
"Mama?"
"Mama!" Steve sobbed through his translator. "I want my Mama!"
I felt my heart shatter as he sat there whimpering in front of me. Out of all the things I could do to please him, I couldn't give Steve the thing he wanted more than anything else in the world…but then again, I could relate.
I couldn't stand seeing my poor friend so sad like that, and in a matter of seconds, I was crying, too. After a few seconds, Steve stopped, and scampered up to me.
"You ok?"
I looked back up, and turned to a small, framed photograph of my mom holding me when I was a kid.
"…Mama…"
Steve looked at the photo with wide eyes, and then looked up at me.
"…Your mama?"
I nodded my head, and Steve gently snuggled his head up against my legs.
"I'm sorry…"
I gently stroked his head back, and smiled at his kind words.
"Thanks, Steve. You're such a good friend."
I couldn't help crying some more, but then, Steve jumped onto my lap, and snuggled his head some more against my waist, gently leaning his head on my heart. Then, I gently reached my hand out, just to make sure it was ok, and I gave him my very first hug.
"Thank you, Steve. I needed that."
The End
A Monkey's Uncle
I was a freshman in college when I got the chance to take a tour of the Swallow Falls Research Center, the town's leading company in scientific experiments, and going there was like spending a month in Disney World in my book. In order to do some homework in my Biology class, I joined up with several other college students into a huge, white building, down grey hallways where a tall, blonde-haired man in a white lab coat, like mine, was showing us.
"Here at the Swallow Falls Research Center, we have experimentation strategies unlike any other. We have a wide variety of outstanding scientists who work with dozens of different animals from all across the world. Our animals have been vaccinated and treated any carrying diseases, and we only have the most domestic breeds in their species…"
As the man was lecturing on, I looked at some of the caged animals that the lab used. There were brown rabbits, dozens of grey and white mice and rats, and there was even a set of baby monkeys all together. Steve was the runt of the litter, er, the smallest one of all, but judging by how tiny all of them were, they were at least a week old, all the same breed. Steve was also curiously munching on some Gummy Bears that one of the scientists dropped from a bag of them in her pocket. Now I didn't have one of those typical moments where, if two people are truly made for each other, it's love at first sight, no disrespect to Steve, though. I was pretty neutral about the whole thing. One of the scientists, a brown-haired woman, took the monkey cage, and left the lab with it. By the time that was over, our tour guide was just done lecturing.
"Come this way, please…"
I stopped to take some last-minute notes about what he said in my notebook, but then, I heard some muffled screaming from a distance, and rushed back to see what it was. It went back down the hall, and looked through a pair of double doors labeled "Employees Only." I peeked through the glass windows, and the scientist put a mask over her mouth, and took out what looked like a shot full of red liquid. Steve himself got out of his cage, and the scientist gently reached her right hand out toward him, but then, he bit her hand, and started running away from the lab, screeching and ranting out like crazy! I ran away as fast I could, back to the tour that was already way ahead of me….
Finally, when I got back home that same night, I was about ready to turn in in the lab. But as I walked to the backyard, I heard some sad whimpering from up one of the trees in my backyard. I looked up and saw Steve cooing sadly on the highest branch.
Huh? How'd he get here? I thought. I didn't wanna talk out loud and scare him, knowing how much he'd been through already. But I didn't want to call the lab either. Who knows what might happen to him if he went back to that lab? I know monkeys aren't meant to be pets, and that wasn't my first intention when I found Steve, but somehow, I had to find a way to get him somewhere safe without bringing him back to the lab, or anybody who might do that.
But too late. Dad found me outside.
"Son?"
"Dad?"
One sound of our voice, and Steve rushed out of the tree, and started dashing for the picket fence, trying as hard as he could to jump over it, but he was too small to go for it. Dad, of course, was shocked.
"What's a monkey doin' in our tree?!"
"Dad, this wasn't my fault, I swear!!"
"How the heck did he get in here?!"
"He tried to escape the Swallow Falls labs, but I had nothing to do with this, I swear!"
"I'm gonna call them right now..."
As my Dad went inside to dial up on the phone, I saw poor, little Steve crying by the fence. I kept a good, hundred-foot distance away from him, but I really wanted to help the poor little guy out...
By the time the scientists showed up from the lab, the same man who was my tour guide lead a group of young men into my yard, and he took out a white pipe in his mouth. He aimed it at the frightened Steve, and blew a pink dart into his body. I gasped as I saw the baby monkey fall flat on the ground, motionless.
"Is he dead?"
"No, my boy. That was a tranquilizer dart; it just put him to sleep."
The scientists then put Steve in a small pet carrier, and put him in a white minivan back to the lab...
But then, the very next night, Steve was back in my yard!
"Huh? What are you doing here?"
Steve started freaking out again in the same tree I saw him before, and tried to find another way to get out, besides trying hard to jump the fence, and then not being able to.
"No no no…it's ok, don't be afraid…."
I thought fast at what I could do to calm him down. Then I remembered that one day he was snacking on a bag of Gummy Bears, and I rushed out into the kitchen, and grabbed a bag from the pantry.
"Hey, lookie what I got..."
Steve spun around, sniffed in the air, and scampered back up toward me. He snatched the treats from my hand, and gulped the entire bag in less than thirty seconds.
"Whoa…you sure eat fast for a little guy..."
Then we heard the lab trucks coming in again, and Steve started racing toward the fence again.
"When is that lab gonna realize that you don't wanna be there? It's as plain as the nose on my face."
Then my eyes went wide, and I looked back up at Steve....
When those scientists came back, I spoke to the tour guide again.
"Sir, I'm wondering…since this monkey's tried to escape so much, maybe you could just send him back to his natural habitat instead? I really don't think he wants to go back to the lab…"
"I'm sorry, son, but that monkey was bred in captivity. He was fatally wounded when we found him in Africa, and he was also without his mother."
I hung my head low.
"Mr. Lockwood, are you all right?"
I looked up. "I-I'm sorry, sir. I'm ok."
"Well, unless we can find a more suitable home for that little monkey, the lab is where he'll stay..."
Then my eyes went wide again.
"That's it!!"
The next day, I looked through my old chest of toys when I was a kid...
"Toy, check! Dad's old sweatband, check!"
Then I took the two back to my lab, and spent the entire day tinkering with them.
"Wiring enhanced! Chips installed! Antennae secure! Engage test subject!"
I took a video camera, and set it up in my dad's Tackle Shop.
"Son, what's all this?"
"You are gonna love this, Dad! Behold, the very first device that allows this noble creature to communicate with mankind! The Monkey Thought Translator!"
"Hungry!"
"How wise…"
"Hungry, hungry hungry hungry!!"
"Steve, no no no no!! Steve, no!!"
My Dad screamed as Steve ripped off half of his mustache…
Yeah, training Steve wasn't easy when I first adopted him. At first, my dad would not tolerate the idea of having a monkey for a pet, but when I made Steve's Monkey Thought Translator, I also inserted a safe hormone in his brain to make him domesticated to me, the same sort of instinct animals like cats or dogs have that make them so loyal and understanding to the people they know. Steve would know I was his owner, but he'd still have the same sort of instincts he had as a real monkey. I didn't wanna brainwash him into our society in any way. I just wanted to make sure that if I was gonna protect Steve, and that he couldn't even go home, I wanted to make sure he could easily adjust to our society. He'd also be able to communicate with me better with his new instinct, making me one of the very lucky exceptions to have a monkey for a pet and train it well. My goal was to make it so that he would understand his environment and who was his master, but also understand that I really did love him.
Oh, and why did I name him Steve? Well, while I was motivating to make Steve's Monkey Thought Translator, one of the scientists up there on my posters happened to be one of my favorites, Stephen Hawking. I quickly realized that this was a monkey talking through a mini-computer, just like him, so I decided to name Steve after him.
I kept Steve away from my inventions by giving him other things to toy with, like a simple pot and spoon to bang on, or simple objects like a sardine can to chew on. He had a really small attention span, so it didn't take much to keep him pre-occupied while I was working. In time, I also enhanced Steve's artificial hormone so he'd be able to be, to a certain extent…uh, housebroken, but he still kept the sort of spontaneous, insightful behavior of a real monkey, so it wasn't like I brainwashed him or anything. When he was trained enough, I let him roam the lab as he wanted since he knew his limits now, and after two weeks, I even let him be at the lab all by himself for an hour, and all he did was stare at a shiny wrench that was lying on the ground. Not a single thing in the lab was dirty, ruined or changed.
I giggled at seeing him so distracted when I came back. He's definitely ok, now.
That very same night, I woke up in the middle of the night hearing something strange. I turned on the lights and saw poor Steve in his little pet bed crying, just like he did on the day we met. I rushed over to him and knelt beside him.
"Steve, what's wrong, buddy?"
"Mama!!!"
My eyes welled up with tears just hearing him cry out that one word.
"Mama?"
"Mama!" Steve sobbed through his translator. "I want my Mama!"
I felt my heart shatter as he sat there whimpering in front of me. Out of all the things I could do to please him, I couldn't give Steve the thing he wanted more than anything else in the world…but then again, I could relate.
I couldn't stand seeing my poor friend so sad like that, and in a matter of seconds, I was crying, too. After a few seconds, Steve stopped, and scampered up to me.
"You ok?"
I looked back up, and turned to a small, framed photograph of my mom holding me when I was a kid.
"…Mama…"
Steve looked at the photo with wide eyes, and then looked up at me.
"…Your mama?"
I nodded my head, and Steve gently snuggled his head up against my legs.
"I'm sorry…"
I gently stroked his head back, and smiled at his kind words.
"Thanks, Steve. You're such a good friend."
I couldn't help crying some more, but then, Steve jumped onto my lap, and snuggled his head some more against my waist, gently leaning his head on my heart. Then, I gently reached my hand out, just to make sure it was ok, and I gave him my very first hug.
"Thank you, Steve. I needed that."
The End