THE PASSAGE

Our Neighbors

Chapter 32

Solstice and I check and clean Toby's wound and reapply fresh bandages. She continues to be fascinated with the accelerated rate that the wound is healing. After Solstice finishes with her examination, she concludes that Toby is still doing well, although not yet fully coherent, the reason being that he had lost so much blood. She says it's nothing to worry about, and it should get better within a few days and not expect him to remember much or make much sense for now.

"Oh Jamie, I forgot to mention it, but have you seen our neighbors behind the cabin yet?"

"Neighbors, what are you talking about? I thought you said we were alone."

"Well, they are not human, but they do seem to resemble us pretty closely. I think you call them monkeys."

"Monkeys? Are you serious?"

"I think so. We don't have monkeys in Nod. But I know that you have them in certain countries of Eden. They like to feed in the grove of fruit trees behind the cabin around this time of day. That's where I've been picking the purple fruit. After Toby has fallen back asleep, you, me, and Cain could walk back there and collect

more fruit, and I will show them to you. It's not far from here."

Monkeys. That word destroys any hope of the slightest possibility of us being anywhere near the Manchac swamp. Why couldn't she have seen an alligator instead?

Thirty minutes later, Solstice and I head out of the door with the backpack, rifle, and her carrying Cain in the baby sling. We walk behind the cabin, then up a trail a few hundred feet when the tops of the fruit trees come into view. They are much larger than fruit trees I'm accustomed to seeing. As we approach a little closer, Solstice puts out a hand to stop me, then points to the visible treetops up ahead.

"There they are," she says, pointing out two monkeys in the distance. "Let's walk up slowly and keep away from the trees where they are feeding. They are pretty aggressive."

"Will they come after us?"

"I don't think so, but I tried gathering from a tree directly under them, and they began throwing the purple fruit at me."

We approach a little closer, to within 25 yards of them. They start screaming as if to warn the others of our presence. I don't know what species of monkeys these are, but they look a bit unusual.

Solstice hands Cain to me and begins picking fruit, while Cain and I observe the monkeys some more. After a few minutes, I feel the backpack starting to get heavy.

"Solstice, don't you think we have enough fruit for now? We can pick more later."

"Yes, I suppose. But you never know what tomorrow may bring."

I let Solstice continue to fill the backpack while I go back to observing the monkeys, still fascinated by their presence.

"Solstice, can you hold Cain? I want to get a closer look at them."

"Okay, but I wouldn't get too close if I were you."

I hand Cain to Solstice, then drop the backpack and proceed to try to sneak up on the monkeys. As I approach, I can tell by the noises they make that they know I am on the move towards them.

I make it to my destination behind a fruit tree, then slowly peek up in the one with the monkeys, counting six of them. I would say that they are about half the size of a chimpanzee, their color gold like the sun, their face as black as midnight. The hair on their bodies appears fine and soft. The hair on their head is longer and stands straight out, like a terrible perm. I continue watching them as they eat fruit and appear to communicate with each other.

All of a sudden, it feels like I've got hit with a softball in the leg.

"Ouch!"

All of the monkeys saw what happened and now appear as though they are laughing at me. I turn to look up in the tree behind me to find the assailant that threw the fruit. And then, another fruit hits me in the arm.

"Damn it!"

I turn and see that another monkey has come to a lower branch to wage war on me. He has three purple fruit cradled in one arm and one in his throwing hand. He pulls back and throws at me, but I see it coming and step out of the way. He quickly throws another, this time finding his mark on my arm again.

"Ouch! Damn you, monkey!"

I can hear Solstice hysterically laughing at me and yelling for me to get out the way. I pick up three fruit of my own and begin throwing back at him in anger. He finally retreats to a higher branch when he is out of ammunition and laughs with the others.

As I make my way back to Solstice, she is still in a laughing fit. I don't mind. I am glad to see her with laughter on her face after all the tragedy she's suffered.

"Did you see that, Cain? Aunt Jamie got attacked by the monkeys."

Even Cain appears to be laughing at me.

"You think that's funny, Cain? Huh, you think that's funny?" I say as I lightly tickle him. When I move over a particular place on his tummy, I hit his ticklish spot.

"Oh, look, Solstice, he's ticklish right there."

As I tickle him a bit more, he smiles a big smile while making cooing noises and kicking his feet. As we play with Cain, I see some of the monkeys moving closer, so we decide to vacate before they overtake us.