Four

“I don’t get why the little indigenous man stole our bags in the first place”, you say, as we ponder how to get out of the jungle. I’m silent, going over the past 4 days. First, 4 monkeys sat staring at us for hours, then lined up on the path and looked at us until we followed them to the beach. There, they scrambled up into a tree and each threw a leaf-packet containing one little winged seed. We were tired and hot so we slept under the almost-full moon. On the second day we rose to the sun, and to our surprise, a sand castle. Or should I say a sand village, with 4 distinctive holdings and 4 courtyards. In each courtyard there was black soil, teaming with life; bugs and worms that drew the small birds to it where they ate breakfast. On day 3 we awoke to the deep barks of the monkeys. At our feet they had each gifted us with a coconut cup, filled with fresh water. We each drank our fill, with one left over. Now, on day four, we sit in the shade, waiting for a clue. None had come in the morning. No sign of our little friends. It’s hot and sticky. “LOOK!” you say, the monkeys had returned to sit around their sand village. We cautiously approached, and looked down at the seeds, the water, the sand, feeling scorched by the sun. “Ohhhh,” we both say at once. We opened the seed packets and watched as the wind took their little wings to the courtyard, to the soil, we watered them with the fresh water, and were grateful for the life-giving sun, if only for the little seeds. All happened at once, the monkeys went crazy, woofing and clapping, trees sprouted from the villages, growing huge before our eyes, up to the blazing sun and shaded us. A quiet chuckle was heard from behind the trees, now grown into an extension of the jungle. There we found our bags, but no sign of our guides, nor the little man.

Margot