Thomas and Amani Summer Reading Club Mystery

Chapter Eight - Monkey Man

Thomas was not marched to a gorilla's nest, thank goodness but he was marched to a one-man camp. A small grass hut was set up a foot above the ground. A small bed of coals simmered in the dark in a pit.

"Blabber...blabber...blah," said the strange gorilla man.

Thomas' stomach reacted, tensing into tight knots like someone tying rope around his guts. He imagined the jaws of the python and how tight the giant snake had strangled him. His stomach rumbled like a mad volcano. He sucked in his gut until it hurt, and then pushed with all his might. Phrrrrrrpppp! The mother of all butt burps ripped from Thomas' behind. He smiled with relief as the ape-man gagged and fanned his nose.

"Like dude!" the ape-man said, "You just like totally fried the nose hairs right out of my nostrils."

"Like dude, you talk English?" Thomas said, then everything went black.

When the light came back, Thomas was staring at shadows flickering off the canopy of trees. The ape-man's face came into focus, a huge grin spread across his dark features.

"Of course I speak English, like what do you think I am a Neanderthal?" the ape dude said.

Thomas shook his head, totally confused. Another bout of gas seeped out of his butt. The ape-dude laughed.

"Like you so totally fainted!" he said.

"Like I thought you were some ape dude or muddy gorilla that was like going to eat me," Thomas said.

The ape dude fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and laughed. Thomas picked himself up and dusted his legs of debris and dirt. The ape-dude laughed so hard that tears streamed down his checks, leaving tracks through the mud. Thomas scratched his head. This was so totally odd.

"So like what are you exactly?" Thomas asked once the ape-dude had stopped laughing. That question just sent him into another bout of raucous laughter.

Thomas wondered if he should take this opportunity to run but the ape got himself under control and stood up, dusting off his grass skirt.

"Like dude, I'm not a muddy ape or gorilla, I'm a boy just like you," he said. "My tribe paints their faces with a substance that is like mud. I look differently because my people live differently than you Westerners."

"Um, actually, I'm a Canadian," Thomas said. "My friend Amani and I live in Swift Current, Saskatchewan."

The boy put his hand under his chin and walked around Thomas, eyeing him up. That's when Thomas noticed that the boy was wearing tattered white skateboard shoes and a watch on his wrist. At least that confirmed that he and Amani weren't in an ancient Amazon world, they were just on the other side of the planet.

"Well my name is Bladder...bladder...blah!" he said. "But in English it's Teyo."

"Uhmm, nice to meet you, Teyo. I'm Thomas Brown," said Thomas and put out his hand to shake Teyo's.

Teyo shook his hand and squinted his eyes. "You don't look that brown to me."

"That's just my surname. Like don't you have a surname?"

Teyo grinned. "Yes but it doesn't translate well into English. So how did you and Amani get here? Did you take a plane? Did you take a ship? How did you get lost in the Amazon?"

Thomas shrugged. "We took a magic door that led from the Swift Current Branch Library to the middle of the jungle. We were following Mrs. Lykopis...as I think she knows where our librarians are."

Teyo's eyes got very large. He made some odd signals with his hands and muttered in his strange language.

"Never ever say that name again, Thomas Brown. It is the bringer of bad luck," Teyo said.