The Twelfth Monkey (A short story)

The Twelfth Monkey

A short story by Amin Wahidi

That was the only street to get through and reach to the movie theater and that day was the last day of that particular movie on the screens that I couldn’t miss, but that narrow street was a bit different now, so crowded and full of different people you don’t know what they were there for, neither they were queuing for the movie, it didn’t seem to be a demonstration either, it was like a public gathering for a speech but who could be there for a speech in that time of night, who knows perhaps a private party of irresponsible people of the city on the streets. Just you see a lot of people gathering in a point as bunch of idiots and you don’t know the reason. The only thing that bothers you is that they block the street and don’t let the people walk on the sidewalk and go where they need to. The other odd thing was the strange smell, as if everyone stank, all had a similar smell someway, a strange smell, as if none of them have taken a shower for months, and I couldn’t imagine I rushed and tried to pull me out of the crowd and make a way to reach to the movie theater, but I couldn’t move and make away among those crazy people, who time to time made a loud noise like “a hurrah!”.    

Getting closer to the movie theater building, I remembered there was a big electronic store along side the street called, THE MONKEY BUSINESS STORE. Oh, now I knew that there was something new coming at the store, may be a new device, one of those that once first changed my life and then destroyed it for a time, and may be therefore the people made that crowd to get one of those, a newer version may be, and as I got closer to the store, I found a long queue started from the store entrance that continued up to the next street and the crowd who made noise, were the ones who couldn’t have a chance to get into the beginning of the queue and remained almost at the end of the queue and were worrying not be able to purchase the newly arrived device.  

As I got closer to the crowd, the smell got stronger and stronger that anyone could smell it without being so sensitive with the sense of smelling. As I went further and further within the crowd of the people, I noticed strange attitudes of them, as if they were crazy, or they were given some medicines as a result of which they acted like this, without knowing what they were doing. Some were trying to climb on the lamppost pole, some were screaming in a strange way that you couldn’t understand if they were happy or sad, and many more were by themselves with a small device in hand, probably an older version and by clicking and touching them they made them happy and then showed their inner feelings about it which appeared on their faces, but some faces seemed very different than faces of human beings, for an instant, they almost seemed to me as non-humans. Among those with a device in hand some were dancing while having earphones in the ears and were moving their heads crazily, up and down, but you couldn’t understand it, as you didn’t hear the music they heard, the music for craziness, may be the only medicine for human beings to become non-humans at least for a while.  

In a moment, I wished I weren’t there, among a crowd of all crazy people but it was not in my hand anymore, because it was out of control to be stuck in the middle of hundreds of crazy people. I was about to scream and as ask for help to get out of it, but who would hear my scream with all that mess there. In between deciding how to get out of that bustle, for a while, I felt a slight inner wish to remain there for a longer while, at least to experience and feel a world different from mine one, but there was no use for it either when I thought about it much deeper. This crazy world of mess wasn’t better than that one of mine; it is true that lately I was lonely, but my loneliness was a self-imposed imprisonment in loneliness for a while to discover myself better and to know my defects, and treat them by thoughts and feelings, but theirs was of craziness I thought.

*******

For a while I thought of the device, the damn device that hurt me, my feelings and my life plans that took me almost to confusion. The device that I had it with me until a few days before, the one I thought would change my life and my destiny but not only couldn’t do it, it complicated my life more than before. It almost took me to the edge of the-last –station peril. But thank God, I just suffocated that Hellish device before it destroyed completely my life.

I just remembered the very first day that I bought it after insistence of a dear one from other side of the ocean, who said, having such an important device helps communicate better with the world, and of course with her. I bought it after many days of resistance, because for long I thought a device of such kind would not help better the world, but just makes us very dependent on it and we tend to forget many other things which we still own in out normal human life.    

My eyes glittered for a kind of happiness, the moment I had it. After I bought, it the first day it really seemed to be as useful as the dear one on the other side of the ocean had told me, but in fact it wasn’t exactly that way.

“What an easy life!” at the beginning I thought, since I had it with me. My time passed better now, as it seemed. There was no need anymore to take a pen and a paper always with you, wherever you go, but that device helped you much more, and worked better. Whatsoever you thought in your head, the device proposed you already, as if it had already read your mind.

It had been ages that I hadn’t written even a single word on a piece of paper, and it seemed that I would not have any relation with a pen and paper anymore, but things changed for a while after the device, from the other hand, in part it was true, my communication with the dear one on the other side of the ocean got better with the help of the device.

After the first days, life was not going the way it should be, there was a real hotchpotch and I couldn’t figure it out how to solve problems as they gathered one on the other just after a few eyes blinks and piled and became a real challenge a head of me, “it is all because of that ominous device” that had newly come to my life I thought and at once, I took the device and stroke it hardly against the wall at once, without thinking about its consequences, and it broke  

******

A bunch of jackanapes broke the string of my thoughts about my life, my past and the device I used to have for a while, as they cheered up after the announcement; WELCOME TO THE MONKEY BUSINESS STORE then the doors of the store opened and again there was a mess in that middle of night, while the strange people were entering into the store to buy the new device.

Oh, my God! It was too late for the movie and I had missed even the last show-time because of these bastard crazy people who made this crowd for a nonsense device. 

Among the crowd, I dared to ask the one who was standing in front of me, his back to my side and with big headphones on the head, was listening to music, he turned his face and whooping said, Whoot?!

Oh, my God!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes, he was an ape! He then pointed to the other person, may be saying me to ask the other person. I was trembling and I wasn’t sure whether what I was seeing was real or a dream, however, I asked sorry and went to other person standing beside, slowly touched his arm and asked, excuse me, what are they selling in the store in this hour of the night;

He moved his face, screeching he said, THE NEW VERSION OF THE DEVICE has come to the market, and happily he followed the queue, he was like a monkey.

I was really afraid, seeing this scene. Then people went to the store, one by one and then it was there under the light of the store that everyone was seen clearly; all these people were monkeys, apes and gorillas, I couldn’t believe to see such a real scene in my life, I thought I was watching a movie.

Now was the real time, to escape and reach to somewhere safe, somewhere different and free of monkeys to live without fear of the monkeys and chimpanzees in the city, now I got to know why it smelt differently, other than smell of human beings.             

   

On the other hand, I was happy to see such a real scene in my life so whenever making a movie about such an incident, the attack of monkeys and guerrillas in the cities this would help you imagine, but rather I was afraid of such incidents in the town. I didn’t have my damn camera with me, to have all registered as a record and as a rich footage for my next film.

As the queue got shorter, there was enough space to go out and escape as soon as possible towards home. The quickest thing I could get was the metro, and I entered it and waited for the one to my direction. There were three minutes to wait, but it passed a hell of three hours, I was so worried, about what would happen, about the future of my life and my family. About the device and many other devices that I thought would destroy our human life soon one day.

I came to the main road and get close to the metro, but until there, almost everyone seemed to be the same, as the ones queuing in the store, and all of them smelt the same, as chimpanzees or gorillas,

The metro came one minute late and I went in. In that wagon, there were only a few people, but they were all almost the same as the people outside, only a group of the three were playing with each other with their devices in hand and once was murmuring happily what she was listening from her headphones that were connected to her device.

There were two or three each by himself, clicking the device and time to time, laughing, but none were talking to each other. While each of them was playing with a device in hand; one was laughing, one was moving his head, the other one in front of me and was shouting, I was confused what to do.

At once, all of the monkeys in the wagon began coming closer to me in a very organized way, as if they had already decided to besiege me, as they were getting closer, I could still count them, and they were eleven monkeys. By any second they got closer and closer to me, and seemed to be so happy and satisfied for what they were doing, I could see it in their eyes; the sense of satisfaction and their triumph over a lonely human being in a metro wagon in that middle of night.    

The metro stopped at sudden and I thought it was the station while thanking God to have arrived near home, but when the doors of the wagon opened, the announcement was “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!”

Then I heard the monkeys altogether saying to me; “YOU ARE THE TWELFTH MONKEY in this wagon, where is your device? We were waiting for you!”  Then I don’t remember anything else.

*******

I was waking up by my girlfriend’s slightly slapping on my face, trying to wake me up, after hours of dizziness. She was also putting a drenched cotton handkerchief on my forehead to control my fever, beside her is sitting Dr. Pir Dana, our family doctor who is now relaxed seeing me opening my eyes. He also seemed to be tired after hours of being beside my bed to control my fever and to make me feel better, prescribing medicines. 

While giving me a kiss, Sheila is holding me tightly saying; “Darling, you know you did today?” but I am still in the middle confusion, still having fear of the MONKEY BUSINESS STORE ambient and what all I saw outside on the street but she burst laughing, “What you did today, is something that we must send it to the journalist”, then Dr. Pir Dana also laughs confirming what Sheila had said.

Beside my bed, there is Max our dachshund, reclining on the floor, but seems to be unhappy or ashamed, because he is not moving around house, but is calm and quiet in one point. Since Max came to live with us, as a nickname, we use “The Little Big Man” for him because it is a grown dog with a small body. Max was a gift of Sheila’s father on my 26^th birthday and now it’s been three years he is living with us.

There is a strange smell at home. And while Sheila talks and laughs, Max wails poorly as if he wants to complain to me for something, because whenever he does something wrong at home and Sheila fights him, I am the one who defend him and pets him.

I am still confused for what I did that made Sheila and Dr. Dana laugh about it,  I don’t remember any thing after the eleven monkeys on the metro wagon came to me. I ask Sheila, what I did wrong and why Max is trying to tell me something.

Dr. Pir Dana asks to go, giving some recommendations in case if my fever will again be high or I will again be unconscious, then he leaves and I thank him with very little energy that I still have. I don’t know how to thank him; he has been like a father to me and Sheila since we have moved here. 

 

Sheila comes and holds me tightly and begins again laughing while asking me strange questions; 

“Darling, who is your dear one on the other side of the ocean?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were calling and asking for someone to come from the other part of the ocean to meet you?”

“Oh, really I did it?”

I didn’t know what I did after that incident of last night, after I was unconscious, it just increases my curiosity and I ask Sheila who brought me home from the metro.

She then, laughs and repeats, “Since we moved here from Milano, we do not have a metro in this small town darling”

She is right; it is me who is confused now. “You are right, my love but tell me who saved my life from the monkeys”  

She again laughs and says, “You must have drunk too much my dear”    

“Don’t you smell something strange at home today?” Asks me Sheila, “Yes, it is the same as the last night on the street, with the monkeys”

Sheila burst laughing again. “Which monkeys are you talking about”.

“The ones, I saw in metro, the ones which were trying to attack me.”

“Darling, there are no monkeys around, which metro are you talking about? We don’t have any metro here in out town.”

“The Monkeys that were around the Monkey Business Store making a long queue”

After I repeat different silly and nonsense questions, she frowns and says, “I didn’t know medicines for dogs would be so strong” then she smiles.

“What do you mean by that?”  “Please tell me who brought me home after the incident?”

“You came by yourself from work as usual but here you did something wrong then went to a long sleep”

“Here I did something wrong and then I went to sleep? I don’t understand what you say”

“Don’t you remember? Really?!”

“No, darling, I don’t remember anything except the eleven monkeys in metro that were attacking me, that is it”

“Well, darling, when I came home, I found Max ill, and the whole house was dirty because of his diarrhea. I went to vet and brought him some medicine, mixed it with milk and put in a glass to mix it, so to pour it then in his plate”

Then you came, and we talked for a while and then …..

“Oh, you mean the milk I drunk was with medicine for Max?”

“I think so”

“Ha ha ha ha ha, Oh, poor Max, I toke your medicine”

 “How is Max now?”

“He is better, I gave him medicine”

“And the consequence is what I see now, you are saying odd things”

“I say strange things? Sorry darling”

“And thanks for the present you brought me today darling?”

“Present? Which present are you talking about baby?”

“The I-Phone 12 that came today in the market, you said they opened a new APPLE STORE near your work.”

“I bought you an I-Phone 12 today?”

“Yes, darling, don’t you remember?”

“No, honey, accept those dangerous monkeys I don’t remember anything else”

“Oh, darling, it is better to go out tonight, get some fresh air and open your mind,”

“Where do you suggest going?”

“Let’s go to the movies, you have promised to take me to the movies this week, let’s go tonight.

We watched Tarzan together on TV before you went unconscious and you said you liked it,  then we watched the trailer of a fantastic movie on TV, don't you remember all these from tonight”

“No!What do you want to watch in the movies?”

“DAWN, PLANET OF THE APES, I guess, it is what you promised to take me”

“Oh!!!”