A Day In the Rain Forest

Hot. And humid.

Every day is like that here, here in the jungle. But we animals don't mind. We've adapted to the heat and humidity+ over the many, many years. I mean, every once in a while, it gets pretty unbearable, but hey, whatever.

The canopy rang with the voices of my family and the other millions of creatures in this glorious place. I'm a capuchin monkey, by the way. All of we capuchins are family. We all spend most of our time high above everyone and everything else, up in the branches of the tallest trees. Swinging, playing, chattering, all day long. It's great.

I've seen the other animals like frogs and fish and sloths and bugs. None of them could possibly live lives as great as ours.

I love the sky. The sun. The clouds. The heavens. I love it all up there. But, sometimes, I wonder about flying.

Birds are lucky. They elegantly soar through the skies, and we're stuck down here staring enviously up at them. It's almost cruel.

Then, when those birds land upon a branch and boast of the wonders of soaring among the clouds and gliding in the wind, it's torture. Torment.

Oh, how I patiently wait for the day to come when I will be able to be among them. When I'll be fit to jet past the world far below me, and quickly glance at everyone's faces, which will be awestruck blurs among the green leaves. And as I do, a bright smile will slowly fill my face.

But, sadly, I know that that day may never come. I'll be stuck here in the canopy. Below the great sky. Beneath the fluffy clouds. Under the heavens. I'll be content, but I'll never be euphoric or even completely happy.

Though, what if it does come?

I can imagine: the wind in my fur and eyes. It's between my fingers. I'm floating through a cloud. The sun is just above me, as if it's barely out of reach.

Those images were in my mind all day, and it was hard to fall asleep. Finally, I managed to drift into slumber, and I dreamed of flying.

As soon as my eyes sprung open, I leaped out of bed. I was wide awake, but not thinking clearly. Propelling myself down a branch, I concentrated on my surroundings. Luckily, I was on one of the highest branches of a tree, so I didn't have to worry much about the other branches around me.

When I hit the end of the branch, I vaulted as hard as I could. Hey, I was a monkey, and we have great agility and all, but I mean I covered 5 yards at least. Not only did I leap far, leaped high.

I closed my eyes and felt the nothing but air. The experience was almost like what I had imagined flying to be like. Almost. Almost, because soon after it felt right, it felt wrong. My eyes peeled open and I noticed that I had stopped going up. Now I was going down.

A quick "Eep!" escaped my lips before the speed of my descent grew.

In a few seconds, I made impact with the highest branch of the tree. That's when I fully awoke and started thinking clearly. The words stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid raced through my mind as I continued meeting branches too hard. I wondered what the heck had possessed me to do this?

I stuck out my arm to try to grab onto a branch, which only made things worse because it hurt my arm and flipped me over. Then a branch hit the back of my head. This caused me to close my eyes in pain, but at least it flipped me back the right way again. When I opened my eyes, my face was just inches off the forest floor.. I closed them again and didn't reopen them for a long time.

The first thing I noticed was that I was back in the canopy.

"Hey! He's back among the living!" shouted a familiar voice as my eyes fluttered open. It was Kwaandle, my brother and best friend.

"Oh, D'jole, you had us so worried," whimpered my mother, M'rola.

"You had quite a fall there son. How are you feeling?" asked Kahlorr, my father. He was the youngest of the 12 Head Circle of Capuchins, but he was the second-in-command.

"I tried my best to smile(which hurt) and answered, "Fine, Dad, fine."

"Chartz, Wurfull, Barl-Barl, and me all saw you plummeting toward the ground. Then you did those two flips, we laughed out loud!" Kwaandle said with a smile.

"Kwaandle!" scolded my mother. "Shouldn't you go see your blood-mother? I bet she's wondering where you are." Kwaandle is'nt really blood related to me, but since we are all family, he is my brother. His real mother was called his blood-mother and his real family was his blood-family.

Kwaandle took the hint. "Oops. Sorry. But it was a little funny. Anyways, I gotta go, D'jole. Seeya later."

My mom still glared at him, but then looked away. He swung off into the distance.


Later, after my parents left, I lay there thinking. I thought about flying, and then how trying to fly turned out. I remembered seeing the ground rushing towards me.

I never thought that flying was so wonderful again.



--D'jole