They huddled together for a while and then decided to raid the house, or at least the part of the house where the food was stored. It looked as if the occupants were swimming deeply in the dream zone so they didn´t think twice, hungry bellies are fast actors. Oran was the first to steal into the house, his mother came next and then Scaffold. Billy was glued to the spot. He didn´t want to admit it but he was terrified. He whispered as loudly as was safe, “I´ll stay here as lookout, bring me something to eat.” Scaffold turned, whispering in return, “no problem, will do.”
They were away inside for what felt like an eternity, then there was a loud crashing noise and he heard the alarming yells of the skinny hairless apes that take everything. He was still glued to the spot. He didn´t know if he should run or go inside to help, Oran and Scaffold bounded past him and towards the fields near the forest. They were covered in leftovers. He was still hungry and he was still scared. He was pinned to the ground.
“Move your red bottom!” cried Oran from behind him.
“I´m waiting for Mum,” he replied.
It was a lie but it seemed much more noble to say that then to scream and cry. Then two overly excited little hairless apes ran out squeaking in excitement. They didn´t expect to see Billy there. The smallest one ran over and gave him a big cuddle. Billy opened his eyes wide in shock. Now he was really frightened. Was this their way of attacking you, cuddling you to death. Perhaps it was a pleasant way to die but he wasn´t ready yet. He struggled and pushed the ape to the floor and moved backwards, his wide eyes were stuck on the little creature. It giggled. Loud banging noises came from within the hut. Suddenly he felt brave. If he could push one of these creatures onto the ground with the least effort he should be inside helping Mother. He hobbled into the hut. The other little creature ran up to him making funny noises. He was holding a banana and giving it to him. Now Billy was confused, here was an ape that took everything, giving him something. Mother could wait, these creatures were easy to deal with. He took the banana, when he´d finished eating it he wanted another so he pushed the little ape to go in and get him more. The banging noises got crazier. The little ape wasn´t moving fast enough to get him something to eat so he decided he´d go in and help himself and mother while he was at it. He didn´t expect to see mother unconscious on the floor surrounded by much bigger apes with sticks and rope. He turned to run out, but was grabbed from behind and carried to a cage at the back of the hut where he and his injured mum were flung. The cage door crashed shut. The first little ape he met sat by the cage all night and fed him fruit while he sobbed and ate, hugging his mother.
They swung uphill, never once touching the jungle floor. Then, abruptly, the tree path ended. The three people of the forest stopped and stared at the vast yellow fields that lay strewn in front of them. It was a grassy wilderness. A dirt road lay somewhere beyond the waving yellow blades of grass. The dust blew up in the air as a white angry sounding creature from another planet zoomed across it. It had large square eyes that reflected the sun´s rays and its legs were not the kind of legs you would normally see in a forest. They were round. Billy imagined his legs spinning around like that at top speed. He thought it would hurt. He whispered to his mother, “are they the apes that take everything?” His mother replied, “no son, they are the aliens that came down to take over the world but the apes that take everything are so clever they tricked them and now they use them to travel around faster.”
“Oh golly,” said Billy, his eyes and mouth were wide open in amazement, “aliens,” he repeated to himself.
He looked at his mother again, she was clearly nervous, she beckoned to them to move a little away from the forest edge, signaling that it would be better to wait for darkness to continue their search. They made extra big nests to sleep in. This time the nests were more of a leafy hideout as mother explained that there was no place where these apes could not get you. Hiding was even safer than running from them. They were all hungry but they were also quite frightened so they stayed put and simply ate the insects that passed them by.
When the sun fell into the horizon and darkness covered the land they began the long trek across the fields to where the village was. They were highly aware of how vulnerable they were so they each had sticks and stones. Mother didn´t carry anything. She knew that if they were spotted here they would have little chance of survival. First things first they had to get food into their stomachs otherwise they wouldn´t be able to save anyone. She could smell something that smelled very tasty coming from one of the houses. They got closer. Some of the apes who take everything were eating outside, when they finished they put everything that wasn´t eaten into a type of container and brought it inside. The village smells were confusing and new and there were lots of them. Most of the smells were bad in contrast to the jungle smells.
Billy didn´t wake up properly the next morning, he jumped up and whacked his head off a low lying branch. A band of monkeys nearby were screaming and howling. He could just about make out the dialect. He thought they were shouting, “berries nearby.” He didn´t get a chance to work on his theory, a big orange-red arm grabbed him and breathed, “move. Tiger.”
“Ah, that´s what they are howling about,” shouted Billy.
“Quieten down and stick with me and don´t climb down the tree, “whispered his mother. They swayed from tree to tree, never once touching the floor of the jungle. In time the howling of the monkeys went into another direction and turned into a frenzy. It was followed by a jungle silence. The birds´singing took over.
“Did the tiger get one of the monkeys?” asked Scaffold.
“Maybe so, maybe not, the main thing is not to stick around to find out,” explained the mother.
Billy´s brother, Oran, gestured to them to keep moving. He had got the message.
“Where are we going?” inquired Billy.
“We´re going to the territory of the apes who take everything,” replied his mother, “so be extremely careful, they are far better hunters than tigers and they hunt in packs. They used to leave us people of the forest alone but now they feel as if we are coming into their territory when really they leave us no choice as they have widened their territory by cutting away the trees. More and more creatures of the jungle are going to their settlements to find food, so other predators could be hanging around their territory. Be on the lookout at all times.”
Then she hunched over and suddenly flung herself from a tree. She practically flew into the next one, breaking leaves and branches as she went. The trees complained about her weight a bit but she didn´t stop to listen to them she just kept going. Oran, Scaffold and Billy caught up and overtook her. They ended up following Oran, he seemed to know the way better than their mother did.
When they got to the sleeping trees Mother was weaving leaves in the tall branches, making leafy beds for them. They watched her testing each one out to make sure it was strong enough. Then they got bored watching and had a game of “try to hit each other on the top of the head”. The idea was simple enough but there was a bit of skill involved trying to avoid getting a right slap in the face. A slap in the face didn´t count. You had to get the top of the skull to win the game. Eventually Mother called them and made them test their beds.
“We have to get a good sleep tonight, tomorrow we are going on a journey,” she said.
“We can´t go without Daddy,” said Billy´s sister Scaffold, so called because she was always trying to build tree houses.
“We are going because my instincts tell me Daddy is in a bit of trouble. I had a bad dream last night about it too so now I´m convinced, you all know your father has been in the territory of the apes that take everything. He´s normally able to collect food without being seen and if they trap him, he´s always been a master of escaping any kind of cage. But this time it´s different. We´ve got to go find him,” answered the Mother.
Then she gave each one a big cuddle and they all got into their leafy nests and slept. Billy couldn´t sleep. He was excited and scared at the same time. He had never been out of this part of the jungle before. His mother and father never spared him any of the horrors that lay awaiting them, not just in the forest but also outside it. They wanted him to be ready for anything so they did their best to explain in great detail all the terrible and great adventures they had had trying to survive. He was still very young but he knew how to use a stick well, although his Mother always told him the best defence is to run.
He wasn´t really worried about his father, he was well known for getting out of dodgy situations. He rolled over in the leaves and faced his family. Then he slipped off into the dream zone.
In the years 1987 and 1988 a forest fire raged through Borneo and killed one third of the orang- utan population. It is generally believed that the fire was started by a palm – oil company trying to clear forest for new plantations.
This story is about a family of orang – utans and a human farming family just before this incident. Most of us love these cute creatures, the orang-utans, only three percent of our DNA doesn´t match theirs. The rest is identical. However, we humans have a terrible track record of treating humans unfairly, perhaps it is too much to ask the people of Borneo to find other solutions when they are trying to get rid of this “agricultural pest.”
So there you have it. These creatures are loved abroad but would you be happy if they crept into your garden and ate all the vegetables you were relying on to avoid starvation. And they are not that inclined to take no for an answer, they are just like us, a stubborn lot. Maybe before we get angry with the farmers we should try to understand that they are trying to survive too.
Billy Orang-utan was swinging in the trees one day.
His mother, the great long-arm of the law in the family jumped into the tree he was swinging from.
“Billy,” she started, “ go gather your brothers and sisters and meet me in the sleeping trees, we have to have a big chat.”
Billy had one sister and one brother and that was a lot for an orang-utan family. His father wasn´t the most social with the family, he was a bit of a loner but he did his best to protect them when he was around. Billy used his long red hairy arms to travel fast along the ground to where his brother and sister were using leaves as spoons to scoop out some insects that were running frantically into tree log gaps. They had no problem getting at them and they were enjoying their tasty meal.
Billy ran over to them and told them to meet at the sleeping trees and not be late. Mother had some important news for them. They followed him but not before tucking a small log full of insects under each arm.
“Caw caw caw,” they suddenly heard. It was the crow and he was still in one of the cages. Molly plucked the strings of the banjo.
“It´s o.k, we can trust him this time, take the keys from the front desk, I´ve already unlocked it, then climb up there and release him. When you are finished hide the keys in my body and I´ll keep them safe.”
Molly scampered up the wall and let the crow out. The crow was overjoyed.
“Remember what the Pied Piper is famous for. If he suspects the cat won´t give him his reward we could buy him off by offering a greater reward, remember what he did in Hamlin,” suggested the crow.
No, no, we´re not taking any chances. It´s time to get tough. He could easily say we weren´t paying him enough and try to blackmail us, or worse use that formula to kill all my friends and family and me. We won´t take any chances,” responded Molly.
“Molly´s right,” vibrated the banjo.
Just then the steel door opened slowly. The crow hid under the table and put his two wings together as if he was praying and closed his eyes. Molly scampered up into the crows cage and closed it. The Pied piper was whistling to himself an extremely haunting melody that seemed to mesmerise Molly. He sat on his chair that was in front of the desk where the crow was hiding, Stretched out his legs, threw a plastic bag of what must of been his sandwiches on the table and put his hands behind his head. He leaned back on the hind legs of the chair. When he finally noticed all the cages with their doors swinging open he fell backwards. He started to shout like a madman. He searched his pockets. Then with a look that suggested he had left whatever it was he was looking for upstairs he left the room. Molly shouted at the crow.
“Now´s our chance, open his sandwiches and then open the banjo, you should find a bag with some blue pellets in it, don´t eat them but put them into his sandwiches and then get back into positions,” ordered Molly. The trembling crow did just that.
When the Pied Piper came back he was annoyed, he had spent a lifetime creating this laboratory. He ate one of the sandwiches angrily. It tasted horrible. The others waited and watched eventually he collapsed in a heap. The rat poison that Molly had found in the pipe had done the trick. The crow searched his pockets. He got the test tube with the formula out of one and wrapped it carefully in bubble wrap and hid it inside the banjo. Then he grabbed the keys, flew up to Molly, got her out and onto his back, grabbed the banjo´s strap and flew out the window.
“Now it´s Tiger´s turn,” he cackled.
They searched the house for him, he wasn´t anywhere to be seen. Then, concluding that cats love napping they decided that he had to be in bed asleep. There he was in the bedroom stretched out and snoring. Molly got off the crows back. The crow put the banjo down carefully and tried to unfasten the amulet. He couldn´t do it. He whispered to Molly to try.
“He´ll smell me,” she protested. “No he won´t,” encouraged the crow, “his senses are dulled as a human.”
Molly crept under Tiger´s neck and unfastened the amulet. Then the crow grabbed it. They put it carefully inside the banjo and all three flew out the window.
When Tiger finally woke up, he was amazed to find he was a cat again, and an amulet – less cat at that. He screamed in anger. He ran swiftly down to the basement. The Pied Piper wasn´t moving and the lab was empty. He searched the Pied Piper´s pockets, nothing, not even a few cents.
He was furious. Then it dawned on him that there were a lot of free rats and mice about, he could have fun hunting them but these were strange things that the Pied Piper had done experiments on. What if they wanted revenge. He decided to make a run for it. The last account we have of Tiger is from an old wasp, who saw him disappearing down a pipe that was left in the back of a shed.
Meanwhile Molly and the crow were returning the banjo to the hare, who was more than happy to be able to add their adventure to his list of ballads. The crow returned the amber amulet to the toad as molly was too afraid to do so. Molly decided to stay and live in this realm as there were no cats. So she moved in with the crow. The two cripples lived happily together and Molly eventually got to like jazz. A wasp told me the other day she was taking saxophone classes
Being a human who had never conversed with other humans nor read a book written by another human being meant Tiger had some trouble adjusting to his new body image. He had to go to the toilet so he ran over to a sand heap, did his business there and then covered it up by kicking sand over it with his foot. As he was doing so he realised from the disapproving looks of the neighbours and the twitching curtains from across the road that humans just didn´t do this. He would have to be much more observant of human behaviour. He picked up the banjo and headed into the house and downstairs into the dreary basement where the Pied Piper´s lab was.
He knocked three times on the steel door. This was the secret knock they had for each other so the Pied Piper was terribly startled when he opened the door and spied a pair of barefooted feet there. He looked up and almost fell back when he saw an old, badly dressed man with very long white whiskers flying out from his face standing there with his shirt buttoned badly and an amber amulet floating over his hairy white chest.
“Get out of my clothes!” was the first thing that shot out of his mouth. Then he made a few hesitant noises because he was unable to comprehend what was going on and couldn´t finish a sentence. The cat-man did it for him.
“Yes it´s me all right, I´ve turned into a human,” he muttered “now let´s get down to business. I have a little job for you. I want you to make a potent poison or disease that will rid the entire world of mice and rats. You will be rewarded well if you accomplish this task and just as a motivational present I´d like you to have this banjo.”
The cat was right. The Pied Piper was a sucker for musical instruments. He agreed to do the job and he added that he had almost finished making a disease that would do the job and not affect any other creature that came in contact with it.
“Sounds wonderful!” said Tiger cheerfully. Then he added, “have you any clothes in your wardrobe that are not for skinny people?”
“No, I´m afraid not.” replied the Pied Piper as he put the banjo down beside the cages and got back to work with added fervour. The cat-man went out to the garden to see if he could catch himself a snack.
It was night when The Pied Piper finished his diabolical formula. He put it in a test tube and dropped it into his coat pocket then he turned off the lights and closed the heavy steel door behind him. The banjo started to hop. Molly moved closer and stuck her paws out as far as possible and plucked the banjo´s strings.
“Undo one of my strings and you can use it to pick the locks on the cages,” plipped the banjo.
“Genius,” said Molly as her little hands went to work. It wasn´t long before the room was full of free mice and rats. Some of them were quite nervous as the had never tasted freedom before. Molly did her best to calm them. They headed towards the windows and the ventilation and cracks in the wall to escape their jail but not before thanking Molly and the banjo. Molly put the string back on the banjo and plucked a few strings. The banjo sang, “Now we need a good plan.”
The lab was empty. Only Molly and the banjo remained. If they were going to come up with a good plan to stop Tiger and the Pied Piper it would have to be a really good plan.
Molly watched him potter around the laboratory, checking things. She couldn´t make out what was going on until she saw him take out from a cage two white mice. One had a ear on her back. The other had two tails. Molly put two and two together and shouted, “Hey that´s my ear and you there, that´s my tail.”
The two laboratory mice looked over at her.
“Hello Molly,” said one, “this is Lucy, I´m Spike. These extra limbs are not yours, the Pied Piper grows them on us. We always thought it was the humans who worked for the cats and not the other way around, things are clearer now that we´ve been shoved into this torture camp. They do experiments on us constantly. I can´t tell you how sorry I am to see you here. The wasps by the window told us what Tiger had planned for you. I suppose he has the amulet.” sighed Spike.
“Yes he does but I´m not sure what it does or why it´s so important,” said Molly.
“Tiger is a smart cat, the amulet gives a shape changing power to the wearer. Tiger knows it´s the humans, not the cats that call the shots. He´s going to turn himself into a human. At the moment we´re safe enough. Humans need us lab mice but Tiger wants to rid the world of all vermin. He´s very manipulative so he thinks he can get the Pied Piper, who is capable of anything if you pay him well, to wipe out all types of rats and mice.” said Spike and his whole body slumped over as he finished his sentence.
“He´ll be asleep now for about ten minutes, he does that a lot lately.” whispered Lucy.
“We´ve got to get the amulet back off Tiger, where´s the crow, he was only half on Tiger´s side, maybe he can help us?” squeaked Molly in a blind panic. She felt extremely responsible for the survival or extinction of her kind right now.
“I´m here too,” said a voice from above her cage. Molly´s heart sank into her belly.
Meanwhile Tiger was busy. He put the amber amulet around his neck, made his wish and in a puff of smoke there stood a fairly hairy human. He rushed out of the shed and put on some of the Pied Piper´s clothes that were hanging on the clothes´ line. A little bit of trivia for you now, if you know any extremely hairy humans that wear a lot of jewellery, there´s a fair chance that they are really animals wearing shape changing amulets.
He dashed back into the shed and grabbed the banjo thinking to himself, the Pied Piper is a sucker for musical instruments. It would make a nice motivational present for the person who was going to create the poison that would eradicate all mice and rats from the planet. Maybe a nice disease would do the trick.
She hadn´t ran far when she heard the angry croak of toads and frogs. They were after her all right. It was time to scamper out of here as fast as she could. But where could she go? She hid in the undergrowth and kept really still. The banjo started to bounce.
“Not now banjo, we´ve got to keep quiet or they will find us,” she whispered.
The banjo reluctantly went still. The shouting and the shrill screaming got closer. Molly shut her eyes and prayed that they wouldn´t see her. The angry mob sailed past. The refugees stayed where they were until they felt it was safe to come out of their leafy hideout. The banjo was bopping around now like a lunatic.
“Will you cut that out,” said Molly. Then she plucked it´s strings. “We´re being watched, look up.”
Molly looked upwards. There, resting patiently with both beady eyes firmly fixed on the odd pair was the crow that had been playing the bass.
Molly said a word that we shouldn´t print and asked the crow how long he had been there.
“Oh, only until you decided to hide, before that I was everywhere you have been. I´ve been following you since you arrived.” it cackled and added, “Tiger would be really impressed with you, he hired me to make sure you did what you were supposed to, to be honest he really doesn´t trust any kind of vermin.”
It was then that Molly noticed one of the crows claws was damaged.
“What happened to your claw?” asked Molly.
“Oh the cat got me too, why do you think I´m working for him. He´s got some kind of brilliant surgeon who apparently can stitch us up nicely.” explained the crow.
“If you ask me we´ve already been stitched up.” sighed Molly.
“My claw may be damaged, but my wings are fine, hop up on my back and I´ll get you two out of here.” offered the crow.
Molly and the banjo jumped up and off they flew. They could see the angry amphibians down below. They looked like tadpoles from the distance. Not long in the air they came to the entrance of what looked like a deserted mine.
“Hold on tight,” cawed the crow, “…next stop your world.”
Everything went odd again and Molly closed her eyes. When she opened them she was squeezing out of the original pipe she had initially gone into. The crow was holding the banjo and talking to Tiger. Tiger was smiling when he grabbed Molly. He took the amulet off her and handed her to a hairy monkey that brought her to a laboratory and locked her in a cage. There were loads of cages in the room all full of white mice or rats. Molly sat alone in the the cage and felt like a fool she felt so sorry for herself she began to cry. How would she get out of this mess. A heavy door at the back of the lab creaked open. Molly could not believe her eyes. Dressed in a lab long white lab coat was the so called mythical character himself – the Pied Piper.
The ears and tails swirled around and around and there was some sort of pink tinge off them then they mushed in together and became one creature. The creature spoke to Molly. It told her not to dally around here and get a move on, it also told her that she had to stop following other creatures and become a leader of mice and little beings. She had a good giggle at that but then she felt ill. It was true that she could be a bit of a doormat. If she had been a bit of a dormouse it wouldn´t have been so bad. Maybe it really was time to get tough. She suddenly felt very small. She looked around her, maybe she really was tiny. All the leaves seemed to have got enormous. A frog approached her. That was when she knew she was in trouble. He was the biggest frog she had ever seen. She heard a frog say, “Take these two down to the opera hall, I´ll let the toad know they´re asking questions.”
Then she passed out.
When she came to, she was sitting in a balcony in the plushiest red velvet seat she had ever sat in. She felt odd. She felt like somebody else and her head was a little sore. A frog gave her some orange juice. He told her to wait here and then he whispered to her that Thunder thighs would sit beside her when the performance was well underway. The banjo jumped a bit. Molly plucked the strings, “This could be good,” it plonked.
Molly found the opera a little boring but the costumes were fantastic. She wondered did the frogs make them themselves, If so, they were a highly talented lot. The audience area was jet black when the lighting was focused on the stage. Then to make things even darker the red velvet curtains in her theatre box closed. She turned around. There closing the door to the balcony was the largest being with floppy rubbery feet. When he took the trench-coat and blond wig off she almost puked. This was the famous toad alright. His thighs were so big he couldn´t sit down in any of the chairs so he stood at the back of the balcony.
“I understand you´ve been looking for me.” he said in a deep croaky voice.
Molly stared at him and asked herself why wasn´t he called big head, his ugly head was twice the size of his thighs.
“A friend of mine is in trouble and he needs the amber amulet to get him out of it,” she lied.
“What will you give me in exchange for the amulet?” asked the toad.
“This banjo is neat, do you want that?” offered Molly.
“If I´ve go my facts right, it´s not yours to give, I hear it belongs to the hare,” the toad pointed out while he played with the amulet around his neck.
“All right so, I have nothing to offer you, but I´m desperate,” pleaded Molly.
“That´s not good enough,” said the toad. He put back on the trench-coat and blond wig and turned away. Molly grabbed the banjo and whacked it as hard as she could across the back of his squishy head. “Ouch,” sang the banjo. The toad fell to the floor. Molly unfastened the amulet from around the toad´s neck, grabbed the banjo and ran out the door. She opera was still in full swing. She made her way out of the theatre and carefully ran into the foliage. She had what she wanted, now she just needed to find a way out of this place.