Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (01/23/20)
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TITLE: Jumper and Jack | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
01/29/20 -
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That fateful day started like any other; me ensuring passengers boarded their train with their luggage, helping the ladies on and off the footboard, keeping the station clean, and most importantly running the points so that the trains ran on the correct track at the right time. Never had an accident at this station – no sirree.
“Jumper” everyone calls me, although my name is James, and often people stared in amazement and admiration as I’d demonstrate my nimbleness and ability. One afternoon, in a bid to amuse the waiting passengers, I jumped from one railcar to the next as I had done thousands of times before. But as I swung from one car to the other, I could feel my hands slipping from the side of the car.
“No! HELP!” I screamed.
But it was too late. I think I blacked out, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital. It was then I discovered my legs were gone – victim to the railcar’s wheels.
After the accident I came back to work, but it was not the same. I carved two peg legs for myself, but walking to the points was almost impossible. The wheelchair the hospital provided was big and bulky, so I designed a trolley I could sit on that ran on the tracks, but still, it was hard. What if I lost my job? What would I do? I’d lose my cottage, my livelihood and my pension.
One afternoon I went into town and there saw an amazing sight; a baboon leading an ox wagon. A baboon? One of the most aggressive creatures in the world? Trained? How on earth? I talked to the owner (can you really ‘own’ a baboon?) and eventually persuaded him that I had to have this creature. If he could lead an ox wagon, he could push my wheelchair!
I brought him back to my cottage and after ascertaining that he was toilet-trained and could follow simple commands, I named him Jack. Every day Jack pushed my wheelchair to the station, I’d strap on my peg legs, and then he’d push the trolley to the points, and I’d change them. After a couple of weeks Jack would run ahead and change the points himself! This baboon was incredible. Was there nothing he could not do? Even the train drivers got used to him, and laughed as they saw him jauntily running towards them after they’d blown their whistles to get the points changed.
One day, Mr Pienaar, the system manager for the region came by. “James. What’s this I hear? A lady reported seeing an ape on the tracks. Not only that, this monkey was fiddling with the signals box, and she feared for her safety and for those on the train. What on earth is going on?”
I called Jack into the office. He was a typical looking baboon, all teeth and bottom, and I could see the fear rise in the manager’s eyes.
“He is perfectly tame,” I assured him. “Can we put on a demonstration for you?”
Reluctantly he agreed. As one of the trains drew up, it blasted its whistle four times. Jack was galvanized into action. He leapt to the cupboard where I kept the signal box key; grabbed it, and loped along the track in his inimitable baboon-fashion, opened the signal box and moved the points so the train could proceed along its new route.
Pienaar’s expression was priceless. If I had a camera, I could have won first prize in any contest. “How? What? How?” he sputtered.
I laughed. “I’m not sure. All I know is that Jack is one of the cleverest animals I have ever seen. He’s never made a mistake; and he just knows what to do.”
“I’ll have to take it up with HQ,” Mr Pienaar muttered as he left the station, looking askance at Jack as he walked away.
Several other railway officials came and tested Jack. He never failed to astonish, and in fact he impressed them so much they made him a formal employee with a salary! His official title now is ‘Jack the Signalman’.
My Jumper days are over, thanks to that awful accident. But you know what? I don’t even really care about that any longer. My life is so enriched with my partner Jack by my side as we live and work together in perfect harmony to make the railways safe for everyone.
(742 words)
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Jack the Signalman, the Cape baboon, worked on the railway lines for nine years before succumbing to leukemia. His skull is on display at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.
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