Monkey Wars by Richard Kurti Page B

you went foraging for food.”
    Mico shook his head. Didn’t she understand anything? “All foraging parties have to be sanctioned by Deputy Hani.”
    “Then just say you couldn’t sleep. You went for a walk.”
    “You need permission to leave the cemetery!”
    “How can you live like that?!” It was a devastatingly simple question, and Mico had no answer.
    Papina grasped his hand and led him into the gardens. “You have to see the way we do things here.”
    By now, the energetic youngsters were starting to wake, cajoling their parents into action, their rumbling stomachs demanding food.
    Papina had hoped everyone would be too distracted to make a fuss; there were so many strangers arriving every day that one new monkey would normally have blended into the crowd.
    But Mico was a langur, and immediately he provoked fearful and suspicious glares; with every step he took, the adults edged nervously away as if he was diseased, and the young shrank behind their parents’ legs.
    “I really think I’d better go now,” he whispered, but Papina gripped his arm firmly. Ignoring the wave of hostility, she pulled him toward the temple statue, determined that he should meet her mother.
    Willow was scratching between her toes with a twig when she heard Papina’s voice.
    “This is Mico.”
    Willow looked up and felt her stomach jolt as she saw the langur. Immediately she sprang over, pulled her daughter away and bared her teeth, ready to attack.
    “What is
he
doing here?” Willow demanded, her voice loaded with contempt.
    “He’s my friend,” urged Papina.
    Nervously Mico stretched out his hand, offering Willow a bright yellow lemon. “P-Papina said you liked these,” he stuttered.
    Willow looked at the lemon in disbelief. Did he really think the violations and abuse could all be atoned for with a lemon?
    “He’s been very kind to me,” Papina said with a firmness that warned her mother to tread carefully. “I know he’s a langur, but they’re not all the same. He’s taken a big risk coming here—the least we can do is offer him some breakfast.”
    “I’ll eat anything. Really, I’m not fussy,” said Mico, trying to please.
    It didn’t work.
    Willow glared at him with a thunderous scowl as more females gathered round to show their solidarity.
    Papina moved closer to Mico, trying to protect him. “You know what the langur teach their young? That rhesus monkeys are wild savages! Cannibals!” She scoffed at the absurdity of the idea. “What better way to prove them wrong than to share some fruit with him?”
    Even though Willow was furious with her daughter for showing such disloyalty, she hesitated, trying to understand what was going on in Papina’s confused mind. Suddenly another voice, hard and uncompromising, answered for her.
    “Give him nothing.”
    The monkeys spun round and saw Twitcher standing in the shadows. “He is the enemy of all monkeys; he is the destroyer of your homes and the killer of your families.” Twitcher paced closer as he spoke. “He is the one who has spread misery to monkeys across the city. He’s not welcome here.”
    None of them had seen this side to Twitcher before—gone was the easygoing charm. He turned to Willow and scowled at her in disbelief. “You should be ashamed to be standing next to him. You of all monkeys should know better.”
    “
I
brought him,” said Papina, stepping forward to defend her mother.
    It was not the answer Twitcher wanted to hear. He looked from Papina to Mico, sensing the connection between the two monkeys. It ignited a smoldering anger in his belly.
    “Please, I meant no harm coming here,” offered Mico. “Now I can see with my own eyes there’s been a terrible misunderstanding. You’re monkeys, just like us. Whatever happened in the past, things can be different. Thanks to Papina, I can take that message back.”
    “You want to take a message back?” said Twitcher, looming forward in a gesture of dominance. “Take this: remind