Robbie was sitting outside on his balcony having breakfast when he first met Jack. Now there are two things that are peculiar about this particular encounter and they cancel each other out. The first one was that his balcony was on the sixth floor of a condominium building and the other was that Jack was a monkey. Oh…and there was one other peculiar thing. Jack was a monkey who could talk. Robbie was eight years old. He had been outside sitting on the balcony, eating cereal with banana. He liked a lot of banana so he would slice some on top, eat it down til the banana was all gone and then add some more. Jack came clamoring up the rail of his balcony and sat on the top. He startled Robbie so much that he nearly jumped out of his skin. Robbie had just calmed down when he nearly jumped out of his skin a second time because Jack started to talk.

“I’d love a piece of that banana,” said Jack. “I haven’t eaten in ages.”

The sound of Jack’s voice startled Robbie so much that he sat up straight and in doing so, knocked into the table, which sent the cereal splashing around in the bowl but didn’t turn it over. Having gotten over his shock, Robbie remembered his manners and he gave Jack the remaining piece of the banana that he hadn’t sliced up yet, the banana that hadn’t wound up in his cereal bowl.

“Umm, umm this sure is good!”

“Where did you come from,” inquired Robbie, “I didn’t know there were any monkeys living in Florida.”

“I don’t think normally there are any monkeys living in Florida; at least I haven’t run into them. I mean, living outside a building in the wild that is. I was born in a place called a laboratory inside a building. I lived in a cage. It was a little small, but otherwise, not too bad. I couldn’t always talk either, then one day the scientist with a white coat came and gave me a pill and the next thing you know I could talk. I would have long conversations with the scientist and after awhile, he started leaving my cage undone. I guess so I could come out of it and talk to him. He had given the pills to several other monkeys, including my mother, but they didn’t seem to work on anybody else. He said there must be a difference in my metabolism, whatever that means.”

“I think it means you have a lot of energy,” said Robbie!

“You’re right, I do. That must be what it means,” replied Jack.

“Anyway, tell me the rest of your story. How did you wind up here with me, sharing my banana?”

“This one day as I was sitting there on the scientist’s desk talking to him in his language and my mother in hers, my mother noticed that his window was open, not much but I’m not very big. Well, after my mother noticed that it was open, she told me in a quiet voice that the scientist couldn’t understand that there was a much bigger world outside the cage and the scientist’s room and that I should make a break for it and that if I ever could, I could come back for her and set her free too.”

“If it was my mother, I’d try and set her free,” said Robbie.

“The only problem is,” said Jack, “is that in my excitement to get away when I first escaped out the window, I went so far away from the laboratory that I don’t remember where it is.”

“Hmm, this is going to be harder than I anticipated. Do you at least know the name of the place?”

“Well, I’m not a hundred percent sure,” said Jack, “but, every time he answered the phone, the scientist would say Muon Labs.”

“Wait here.” Robbie went inside and came back out with the phone book. Robbie was eight years old and he was a good reader. He quickly scanned the phone book. “Here it is!” he exclaimed.

“Here’s what,” asked Jack? “I don’t see anything.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly mean here it is, what I mean was here’s the address.”

“What’s an address,” asked Jack?

“An address is kind of like the name of a building but it’s a name that also tells you where the building lives. And if we know where the building is, we know where your mother is.”

Jack jumped up and down for joy. Robbie put Jack in his backpack, leaving the zipper open a crack so he could breathe, and told his mother he was going out to ride on his bicycle, which was the truth. He just didn’t tell his mother what he was going to do. Off they went. As it turns out, the laboratory wasn’t too far from Robbie’s house so they didn’t have a very long bike trip. When they got there, Robbie parked the bike against the side of the building, being careful to make sure he put the lock on it so no one could take it. The front door of the building was open, so in they went, Jack quietly hidden in Robbie’s backpack.

“What’s going on out there,” asked Jack?

“I’m just walking down the corridor of the building, looking for the door that says Muon Labs.” As he said that, Robbie nearly jumped for joy because there, at the end of the corridor, was a big glass door that said Muon Labs.

“Here’s the plan,” said Robbie. Robbie quickly outlined the plan. Through the glass door, he could see the receptionist busy at her desk. He told Jack that he would unzip his pack and that when they got inside, he would put the pack on the floor and Jack could come out and hide underneath the receptionist’s desk. All he had to do was wait until everyone left for the day. He could then go to the cage, free his mother, open the window and out they could go.

The plan went off without a hitch. Robbie opened the door, went inside, took his pack off his shoulder and laid it on the floor. Jack quickly scurried out while Robbie asked the receptionist where the bathroom was. The receptionist pointed back up the hall. Robbie smiles and said thank you and headed back up the corridor, picking up his pack as he did. He knew from the weight of the pack that Jack was no longer in there. Jack did exactly as he was told. He had come out of the pack and was now hiding underneath the receptionist’s desk, next to the garbage bucket. After that, the rest was easy. He waited until the end of the day when the last person, including the scientist, had left the office and the secretary locked the door on the way out. The laboratory was dark as he found his way down the corridor. Luckily for him, when he came to the room that his mother was in, the door was open a crack and all he had to do was push it to go inside. His mother saw him enter the room and she jumped up and down for joy. Jack asked her where the rest of the monkeys had gone and she said to a place called Monkey Island. They were going to take them there and let them go. They had run out of space on the truck, so that she couldn’t go with the rest and was destined to go tomorrow. He had arrived just in time.

“I was so afraid I would never see you again,” exclaimed his mother!

“Well I’m here,” said Jack, “thanks to my friend, Robbie that is.”

The lock was easy, at least easy for a monkey as smart as Jack, a monkey who could talk. He soon had his mother out on the tabletop. The window was a little bit harder. There was a handle that you could turn to open it and he tried to turn it but it seemed like it was stuck. Then he looked up and saw the little latch that kept it closed. He flipped the latch and turned the handle again. This time it moved. Slowly but surely, the window creaked open. Just as it started to move, a loud screeching noise started. Jack nearly jumped out of his monkey skin. It was an alarm.

“Come on mom! Help me!” They fought with the handle until slowly but surely the window moved open enough for them to get out. They were just about to leave when a light came on. There was a man there with a uniform and a badge. It must be the police. The man saw them and started to run towards them. With that, Jack let go of the handle and said, “Come on mom, jump!” And jump they did. It was a leap of faith. Down they fell into the darkness, landing on a bush next to the side of the building. They quickly found some trees and scurried up right to the top where they sat quietly, watching all the action below them as people scurried around trying to find out where they went. Then they started moving from tree to tree, jumping with ease, swinging by their tales, grabbing onto the next tree until they were far away from the laboratory and Jack was sure that they would never be caught.

“Thank you for coming back for me. I was sure I was never going to see you again.”

“You’re welcome,” replied Jack, “you know I don’t like to go anywhere without my mom.”

  1