Bump In The Night

The Gorilla With Twenty Four Heads chapter 6

The boys run and walk for an hour away from the forest of carnivorous crystals. Eventually they enter an area with very few crystals, leaving the night much darker. There are also more plants here, most with spines, thorns, and burrs. The explorers must still be careful where they tread. A few small clouds block the stars. “Those are the first clouds I’ve seen on this planet,” Haticat says.

“Me too,” Fred says.

Up ahead they see some strange, short structures. Running closer, they see that the structures are stone and mud huts. This must be one of the cities! They tentatively enter one of the huts to investigate. The Hornchest Monkeys live very simply. A group of five sleeps huddled in one corner. In the dim light, Nathaniel sees that these monkeys have chest horns that have been sanded down to become blunt and nearly useless. They wear bows and ribbons on their horns. “Stupid!” Nathaniel exclaims, “These must be girls. Let’s look somewhere else.”

The boys walk through an area where the stones have been rolled into rows, all next to the open side of a large, strange hut missing one wall. No one sleeps there. Across the inner wall is carved the sentence: “Y is great.”

“This must be a church, but with no video equipment,” Nathaniel mutters.

“They must use writing instead on this planet,” Haticat concludes.

“Maybe one monkey reads out loud to all the others,” Fred suggests.

“Maybe,” Nathaniel comments.

In the next hut they find another group of monkeys. These monkeys are very large, perhaps 2.5 meters tall. They make loud snarling noises when they breathe. Fred is confused. “Huh? Are they asleep or not? Why are they growling? Are they angry?” he asks.

“I think they’re snoring,” Nathaniel says, “Some animals make noises when they sleep. I read that in a book with a blue cover.”

“Why?” Fred asks.

“I don’t know. I think maybe there is no reason. It’s just one of the ways that creatures are different,” Nathaniel says.

“If Y made all creatures the same, we wouldn’t be able to tell each other apart and we’d be even more bored than we already get sometimes,” Doctor Bill comments.

“Yup,” Haticat says.

“These are probably the adult monkeys, I think,” Nathaniel comments before walking out of the hut.