Monkey Business | Teen Ink

Monkey Business

May 20, 2010
By NathanH BRONZE, Mesa, Arizona
NathanH BRONZE, Mesa, Arizona
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Once there was an interesting traveling circus. The chimpanzees didn’t lead a very prosperous life, but the baboons did. For example, every Monday night the chimps did two flips for the opening act. Afterward Mr. Johnson, the trainer, came to pay them, “Here, take it,” he grunted to the chimps, handing them one banana each. Then on Tuesdays the baboons also did two flips for that night’s opening act. When finished, Mr. Johnson always exclaimed cheerfully, “Here you go!” and handed them two bananas each.

One night the chimpanzees noticed this unfairness, “Hey, man,” Renton nudged Joey, “Do you see that?”

“What, Jones giving the baboons their pay?” asked Joey casually.
“Yeah, he’s giving Josh two bananas; I wonder what tricks he did to deserve that!” he pondered out loud.
“Well, let’s find out . . . HEY, JOSH!” Joey yelled.
“Um . . . Yeah?”
“What tricks did you do tonight?”

“Well, just the usual two back flips.”
“And you got two bananas for that?! We did the same thing yesterday, but we only got one . . .”
“Oh that’s too bad . . . well, good luck! Get ready, we’re moving again to another circus location soon,” Josh sighed. He then went to lie in his cozy bed of grass.
Later Joey and Renton looked around their cage, looking for a cozy place to sleep, but there wasn’t much to choose from, so they just found a patch of dirt and laid down. Looking up at the stars, Renton whispered to Joey, “The baboons get it all, but wait. . .” a smile grew on his face, “Why don’t we move in with them?!”
“Ok, well that’s easy; we don’t because we’re not allowed! Didn’t you see the sign on the wall that said ‘Chimpanzees may not go into the baboon cage without permission’?”
“Well I want that life, so, we could just go jump the fence right now, look! The grass is calling our name!”
“Hmmm… Mr. Bamoa would get mad, but I need the food.” It took a while of convincing before Joey reluctantly answered, “Fine, let’s go.” Off they went, as quiet as a chain-linked fence allowed. They made their way over to the other side, and walking to the cage off to the right, they simply arrived at their destination without a problem. They felt like they were in heaven sleeping in the grass.
The next morning, the baboons woke up to find that they were sleeping next to chimps. When Joey and Renton woke up, Josh questioned them: “What are you doing here? This is the baboon cage.”
Renton spoke up and answered, “We want two bananas for two flips, like you guys.”
“What? You chimps will never get two bananas, but you can clean up my banana peels and I’ll give you ONE of my bananas when I get paid.”
Just then, trainer Johnson noticed the chimps out of place, “Hey, you, chimps, get back in your cage!” Johnson scolded.
Joe and Rent stopped in their place, frozen.
“I’m going to tell the boss about this!” Running to Boss Bamoa’s trailer, Johnson ran out of breath. He said, panting, “Boss—some chimps are in the—baboon cage.”
“Really?” Mr. Bamoa asked.
“Yeah! It’s horrible, they’re ignoring your sign on the wall!” exclaimed Mr. Johnson.
“Mr. Johnson, what do you have against chimps? Here, post this next to the other one,” Mr. Bamoa handed the trainer a new sign.
Mr. Johnson scanned the words silently. It read “If there are chimps in the baboon cage without permission, give them free bananas.”
Mr. Johnson quizzically looked at Mr. Bamoa, read it again, then looked back at his boss and cautiously questioned, “But Sir. . .?”
* * *

Reluctantly, Mr. Johnson posted the second sign, which caught the eye of the boss’s eighteen year old son, Tim. Tim said to himself, “What? This is ridiculous!” Looking at the chimps in the baboon cage, he said, “Chimps, your outta there.” He chained them up and took them back to their cage.
“Um, hey, Tim what about your dad?” asked Mr. Johnson guardedly.
“Oh, he put me over the monkey cages last year! And it’s a good thing, ‘cause it looks like he’s going senile.”
Mr. Johnson wondered how much of a family feud was going to go on before Mr. Bamoa would finally come to his senses about all this monkey-business.



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