About half an hour’s train ride out of the big city is a town called Burbington. It’s a quiet place best known for the pleasant walks in the nearby woods. There are a few other things you can do there. On Mondays and Thursdays in the church hall Miss Du Pont holds her ballet class, and on Tuesdays and Fridays, Sifu Stan runs his Martial Arts School.
One evening the wood’s news resident peeped in through the window of the hall. He saw a line of young people dressed in white pajamas with belts of various colors. They were moving back and forth practicing kicks, punches, and turns.
Theo thought: “I don’t like violence but there are times when a few of those moves would come in handy for a vigilante monkey.”
One of the Kung Fu students was a ten-year-old boy who had recently won his green belt with a white stripe. His name was Neet and he lived in a flat above the village shop that was owned by his parents. That night as he lay awake in bed he heard a shrieking noise that came from the direction of the woods. Neet liked to watch nature films on TV and he thought:
“I am sure that is the voice of a monkey.”
Near the top of a tall tree in Burbington Woods, Theo held his radio close to his furry ear and listened to the midnight news.
“City Park will be closed to the public while police conduct a massive hunt for the fugitive monkey, Theo, who escaped from prison last week.”
You might think that Theo would be pleased to hear that he was one step ahead of the law. It had been a wise move to quit the city for the suburbs. But in fact, he shook the radio saying: “You stupid humans, when will you learn to tell one monkey from another, and see that good and evil are two different things?”
To understand Theo’s fury, you need to know that the monkey who escaped from prison was another monkey – a thief whom the police had got mixed up with Theo.
And now the treetops of Burbington Woods were filled with a loud chattering and screaming:
“It’s a conspiracy!” raged Theo. “They are all in it together – Mr. Grabber, The Mayor, The Chief of Police, The Prison Governor… all of them know the truth, and they are all as corrupt as each other. They are sharing the loot.”
Mr Grabber was the evil zookeeper who trained animals to carry out crimes. He was good friends with people in high up places, but he was Theo’s sworn enemy.
As it was so late at night, few people heard the unfamiliar sounds of a monkey ranting and raving. A poacher setting a snare for rabbits looked up and shuddered. A couple of teenagers who were out for a romantic walk ran back to their car. And of course, Neet turned over in bed and heard him too.
Towards morning, Theo went foraging for food. Often he could get by on leaves, roots, and ants, but today he fancied a full breakfast and that meant fruit. He longed for some crunchy apples but for now, he had to make do with the half-rotten fruit. He hopped over a fence and jumped up onto a wheelie bin.
“Paw, what a pong!” he thought as he lifted up the lid of the neighboring bin. He clawed open one of the black sacks. He could see bits of cardboard and plastic but no fruit. The shop was doing a good job of selling its apples and bananas before they went off. He would have to dig deeper into the refuse. While he was pondering this, a voice said:
“Hey monkey, fancy a banana?”
Theo had one thought: “Help it’s the cops!”
In a flash, he leaped onto the fence. He glanced around and saw a boy who tossed the fruit at him. Theo caught the gift and ran off into the woods.
Theo wondered if he should return for breakfast the following morning.
A sensible voice in his head said: “It’s bad security to go back to the same place every morning. It makes it only too easy for my enemies to set a trap.”
But a more monkeyish voice told him: “The banana feels so much better in my tummy than a worm. He’s just a boy who gave it me, and he seems kind.”
And funnily enough, the boy was pondering a similar question: “I wonder if I’ll see the monkey tomorrow?”
The question was answered when Theo woke up craving for bananas. He might be smart, but in the end, we all have instincts, and a monkey feels the pull of a good meal. He sat on the fence and waited. The boy came out and threw him a banana and an apple.
And the following day, the same thing happened again.
Theo was starting to feel comfortable in his new woodland home. But on the radio, he was hearing disturbing reports of criminal goings-on in the city.
“The animal gang has struck again. Police are examining CCTV footage showing a group of chimps and monkeys using heavy cutting equipment to break into a jewelry store. They escaped over rooftops with valuables worth over £3 million.”
It always made Theo angry to hear about crimes being committed, but he also thought: “It is too much for me to fight this on my own.”
Not all the daily news interests children, but when crimes are being carried out by animals, that gets talked about at school. A boy called Giles said that his mum was too scared to go to the city in case she was robbed by monkeys. A girl called Lisa claimed that the animals were already burgling houses in Burbington.
“That’s nonsense,” said Neet. “All the crimes are in the city.”
“My dad saw a monkey in the woods,” claimed Lisa. “The police aren’t saying anything because they don’t want to scare people.”
“He just imagined he saw one,” insisted Neet. “There are no monkeys in Burbington Woods.”
“How do you know?” asked Giles. “There might be a thousand monkeys hiding among the trees and they will come out one day and riot through the town burning cars and smashing windows. They will be sure to break into your shop and steal all the bananas.”
“I’m not scared,” said Neet. But he began to wonder if perhaps he was doing a silly thing by helping the monkey. Maybe he was a criminal after all, though he just looked cute, hungry and in need of help. Who could he talk to? If he told his secret to his parents he knew that they would call the police. After his mum and dad, the person he most looked up to was Sifu Stan, his Kung Fu teacher. He decided to consult him.
“You did well to tell me,” said Sifu when he had heard Neet’s story. “Your friend the monkey is a criminal who is wanted by the police.”
But Neet shook his head and said: “Sifu, I know he’s not bad. If he’s done all those big crimes like they say he has, why is he stealing bananas from the bins? He should be rich and living a life of luxury.”
“I see your point,” said Sifu. “I would like to talk to this monkey.”
“Can you really talk to animals?” asked the boy.
“Anyone can say anything to anybody,” said Sifu. “The clever part is to understand.”
Sifu usually began his day at 5.30 am with half an hour of exercise and half an hour of meditation. On Saturday morning he had to cut his routine short to be in position behind Neet’s house before the monkey arrived. He hid behind a big pile of twigs and did not have to wait long. Theo sat on the fence for a few seconds before Neet threw the fruit at him and he was off back into the woods.
Sifu leaped up and tried to follow him. He jumped over a thicket of brambles and ducked under branches, but even he could not keep up with a monkey swinging from tree to tree. Sifu was not one to give up easily. He followed in the general direction of the fugitive, listening out for chattering or shrieking. Eventually, his keen ears caught the sound of a human voice.
“This is the news on the morning of Saturday 28th of June.”
“That’s strange,” thought Sifu, “the radio seems to be playing at the top of that silver birch tree.”
Next to the silver birch stood a pine tree with nicely spaced branches that were good for climbing. He began to scale the tree so stealthily and silently that even Theo’s keen ears did not catch any untoward sound. Indeed his thoughts were focused on the reports of a series of street robberies carried out by monkeys on motorbikes.
When Sifu reached the top of the tree he said: “ooh ooh ah ah,” and Theo looked around and stared at the tall bald man dressed in white, loose-fitting clothes. He replied: “That’s a very poor impression of a monkey,” though of course what he said came out as: “Ah ah ooh ooh.” Meanwhile, he was thinking: “Shall I make a break for it now or hang around and see what this crazy, tree climbing human is doing up here?”
The strange guy said: “I did not mean any lack of respect. I came to see if you might need anything. I teach Kung Fu and one of my pupils says he has been feeding you.”
Theo realized that he had seen this man before, through the window of the church hall. He stood up on the branch and bowed, and then made a kick to show that he understood.
“You would like me to teach you Kung Fu?”
Theo nodded and chattered excitedly.
“I can give you and Neet a special class for free, and maybe you can show me some monkey moves, but first I have to know that you are not a criminal like they say on that radio of yours.”
Theo shook his head.
“I don’t believe you are,” said Sifu. “I have taught martial arts for enough years to develop some strong instincts. I almost always know if somebody is going to misuse what I teach them.”
Theo nodded.
“You understand every word I say, don’t you?”
And Theo nodded some more.
“Well, come to the church hall at 6 o’clock this evening and we shall start our training,” said Sifu. He thought for a moment and added: “You don’t have a watch do you?” Theo pointed to the radio to show that was how he found out the time. “Right then,” said Sifu, “I will be expecting you.”
And that’s where we leave our hero, Theo the crime-fighting monkey, for now.
Questions
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At the beginning of the story, _____.
In the middle of the story, _____.
At the end of the story, _____.
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there. On Mondays and Thursdays in the church hall Miss Du Pont holds her ballet class, and on Tuesdays and Fridays, Sifu Stan runs his Martial Arts School.
