The Monkey at the Elephant Camp

The Monkey at the Elephant Camp

When you were young, you were taken from your family or found bawling your little eyes out in hunger. You’re not sure. The people who found you took you to their elephant camp. They gave you milk, played with you, and they laughed and laughed. You felt warm.
When you got older, they sat you on the perch. You thought it was another game. They put a collar around your neck and tied the collar to the supporting wall. You reached out for them, but the collar held you back. If you move too far away from the perch, you fall from the perch. The collar presses tightly against your neck. It feels hard to breathe. You become scared. The people laugh and laugh and help you back on to the perch. You cling tightly to them when they hold you. You feel warm again. There are times you try to take the collar off. It is leather and feels strange against your fur. You have tried to push the collar over your head with your legs. It moves slightly, but your head is bigger than the collar is wide. The people have watched you do this sometimes. They laughed and came to play with you. You felt warm.
There are elephants in the camp tied to posts with metal chains. They step back and forth, moan, and when you watch them for too long you feel dizzy. They blow their trunks and sigh. Their eyes look blank and distant.
The people who take care of you also take care of other people. They go to together on top of the elephants. Before they ride the elephants, they often like to come and see you. Sometimes you wish you could hide and not let them come. All the attention is boring to you. There were times before where you felt hot and wanted them to go away and you shrieked at them and you tried to hurt them so they would go away and the people who take care of you came. They were angry and big. They made loud noises and you felt scared. You stopped shrieking. You felt cold.
The sun comes up. The people wake up. They take you to your perch and put the collar on your neck. You watch the other people come and go. You play with them when you want to, other times you look away and wait for them to go. Sometimes you want something sometimes you’re not sure what. You try to tell the people around you, but they often don’t understand. You give up. You watch the elephants. When the people finish eating, they give you the scraps. It is good. Some days it rains all day. The rain falls on the clay ground. It becomes muddy and sticks to the elephants and the people’s clothing. Sometimes you watch the cars and motorbikes pass. A few times, the people on the motorbikes have fallen over. They cried loudly. Smoke came up from their motorbikes. It smelled bad.
The people who take care of you wait for the other people come and go. They make noises with each other. You have heard these noises a long time and seen patterns. Sometimes you understand the noises. Often, you don’t care.
You sleep. Some one wakes you up. You roll over and go back to sleep. The sun goes down. Then the air is cooler. The people take you into their house. Sometimes they take off the collar. If you do something they don’t like, they put the collar back on. Sometimes you do the things they don’t like. You know they don’t like them. You don’t care.
Another sun comes up. You go out to the perch. You play, you watch, you sleep. Then the sun goes down. A moon comes up. The people sleep. Sometimes at night you see the animals that look like you, other monkeys. They don’t like the people. The monkeys stare at you. They make noises you don’t understand. It bores you.
Dogs come too. Sometimes they stare, sometimes they try to smell you, but your perch is tall. They can’t reach. They bark. They want to play or want to know what you are. You don’t understand. When cats come, they pretend not to watch you. At night, you hear the geckos. They are loud and make the same noise all night. They eat insects. You do that too. Ants crawl on your perch. You pick them up and watch them crawl on your arms. You eat them. They crawl around on your tongue. It tickles.
The sun comes up again. You go to your perch and wait for something you feel interested in to come.