Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: GREED (avarice, particularly for wealth and things) (01/22/15)
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TITLE: Whatcha' Got? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
01/29/15 -
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Dada tumbili stretched herself up on the limb of the top acacia branch and watched the fish eagle swoop down onto the back of a bass catching mosquitoes near the papyrus by the shoreline. Her beautiful black fur glistened in the mid-day sun and provided strong contrast to the snow-white mantle forming a giant U along the underside of her arms and flowing around her back. She ran her thumbless hands through the white hair forming a distinctive square around her face.
The ancient Greeks named her Colobus to depict what they considered the mutilation of the missing digit. She didn’t know the Greeks and she didn’t know that monkey hands came any other way. Her four fingers were enough to catch hold of branches and to pick off the tender leaves on the tree tops. And as she munched, that’s all she cared about. Or so she thought.
Her perch in the sun was perfect for observing the humans scurrying around on the ground in their flower farms. Every year the farms got bigger and took away more of her trees. Every year the farms sucked out more of the lake and left the hippos, lions, crocs and pelicans with a little less space to negotiate with the zebras, antelopes, and water buffalo.
Ndungu tumbili, her brother, took a running leap and catapulted up and over a fifty foot gap toward the lower branch of a neighbouring olive tree. He fell far as he extended his arms and legs, his outstretched mantle looking like majestic wings catching an updraft. Effortlessly, he snagged his target and swung himself up on the branch with a croaking roar of triumph.
Dada tumbili jumped up and down as if on a trampoline. She celebrated her brother’s heroic feat. Her three month old sister, still pink faced and white furred, hunched curiously in the arms of her aunt on a branch beneath. Two other brothers wrestled noisily in the branches near the trunk.
The nine members of their troop had never run across the grass carpet below them. They had never scrounged on the ground for the berries or leaves dropped because of their clumsy gorging. Grubbing was something for Vervets and other lesser beings. The twenty trees which marked their territory provided everything they needed.
Another fish eagle swooped down onto the back of a fish. It sunk in its talons and flapped valiantly to rise again. It’s prey was bigger than it could lift and the fish began to struggle down deeper. As the eagle fought to release what it captured, a nearby croc seized the opportunity and took both the fish and the eagle in a single snap of jaws.
Dada tumbili looked away. This was the way of life.
And then the little human stopped under the olive in which Ndungu tumbili chattered. The little human held up a branch of the sweetest leaves. And she held up something else, a long yellow fruit.
Ndungu tumbili stopped his chatter and scampered lower in the olive. Dada tumbili craned her neck to see. The human waved the temptation slowly. She placed a delicious hibiscus flower among the delicate leaves of the branch.
Dada tumbili had never had a banana, but if her brother wanted it then it must be good. Within moments she too had hurdled the fifty foot gap and equaled the feat of Ndungu tumbili. Her father’s chattered warning was a distant noise lost in the roar of a machine cutting the lawn nearby. The human showed no fear, neither did Ndungu tumbili.
Ndungu tumbili was already on the lowest branches when Dada tumbili hurdled down like a falling rock. The humans setting off their little flashing lights were just a distraction. She had to get to that fruit before it was taken.
As she reached the branch above her brother the human backed away with the prize. The human waved it for a minute and then threw it away onto the green grass. Ndungu tumbili began to scold her for cheating in the game. Dada tumbili was happy in her little monkey heart. The prize was still available.
Ndungu tumbili sat on his haunches and postured for the human to retrieve the prize and share it. Dada tumbili skittered along a branch closer to where the prize had been thrown and watched it. A Vervet twenty trees away was already moving purposefully in their direction.
She jumped for the fruit and didn’t even notice the net.
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