Togo looked at Kombi. “Is he speaking in simian?”
“I don’t think so. We have a serious problem here.”
Kombi felt of Makaka’s forehead. “Stick out your tongue, Master Makaka.”
“Aaaah.”
“Now belch!”
“Buuurrrrrp!”
Kombi said, “Uhhh! Gross! I love it! There’s hope.”
Togo shook his head. “I’m not so sure. Walk around, Makaka.”
Worriedly, Makaka paced back and forth. He watched Togo’s long face. “What's wrong with the way I walk?”
“That's not walking, it's just going from place to place. We have to perscribe some therepy. It’s the only humane thing to do.”
Kombi put his paw on Makaka’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring pat. “Leave it to the doctor. He’ll clue you in.”
Togo stretched, letting his claws snap out full length, then yawned. “OK, first of all, I want four in the floor!”
“Drop down,” Kombi said.
“Now do like this.” He started forward with a syncopated slide. “A one and a two and a one-two-three. If you wanna be cool, gotta walk like me. Keep your chin turned up and maintain your pace, or your not really walkin, you’re just a changin your place.”
Makaka put his heart into it. “A one and a two and a one-two-three!”
“More bounce,” Kombi said. “Keep a slinky slide that’s the mark of the pride. Oh baby, you’re cookin now!”
“Gee! This feels swell!”
Togo abruptly stopped and Makaka ran right into him. “Let’s do something about that ‘swell’ thing! This is a full-blown cultural emergency!”
Kombi said, “Repeat after me. Cooool!”
“Cooool!”
“All right!”
“All right!”
Kombi began to smile. “Can you dig it!”
“Can you dig it!”
“He learns fast!” Kombi said, “This one takes real effort.” He held up his paw and, being quick on the uptake, Makaka high-fived him.
“How does that feel, ape dude??”
“Gee, it feels swell!”
Kombi shot Togo a pained glance. “I hate to see the little guy suffer. Cancel all my other appointments.”
Meanwhile, Togo and Kombi’s mother was getting her stiff shoulder rubbed by Rafiki. Uzuri half closed her eyes and purred as the mandrill’s skilled hands massaged the pain away.
“Today Makaka ground his own Campa root,” Rafiki said. “You know, that boy is headed for great things. When I was his age, I was out playing with my friends. He’s probably saying his morning prayers right now.”
“I don’t know about that,” Uzuri said. “Children have to be children. They’re not just small adults. I give him love--and that’s not to say that you don’t--and you give him wisdom. But he needs to get out and play. And I don’t mean alone. He needs to learn from other young and growing minds. He needs to burn off excess energy. He needs to have a life.”
“And you don’t think he has one?”
“I didn’t say that. I only meant that everyone needs to do some service, but they all have to be served too. Makaka is a child. He needs a childhood.”
Rafiki put his hands under Uzuri’s ears and began to rub in little circles. She purred again, closing her eyes. “Oh yes!” she murmured.
“You make a valid point, old girl. Maybe I forget sometimes how it felt to be young. Do you think the cubs would accept him?”
“All right!” Kombi shouted. “We’ve created another masterpiece!”
“Too cool!” Togo answered.
“Just gotta get with the program,” Makaka said, slinking about with a swaggering flip of his tail. “Cool isn’t a thing, it’s a way of life.”
“It just gets me right here,” Togo said, patting his chest. “Another soul snatched from the jaws of utter geek-dom.”
Later that day Rafiki returned, tired but refreshed by his time with Uzuri. “Hello, Makaka.”
“Yo, daddy-o.”
“Huh?”
“You look beat, dude. Why don’t you chill while I raid the pantry.”
“Chill?” He watched the way Makaka slinked to the cache of fruit. “Is there something wrong with your legs?”
“Man, my dogs are barking! You know what they say--sometimes life’s a....”
Rafiki clapped his hand over Makaka’s mouth. “TOGO!! KOMBI!!”
CHAPTER 62: DIETARY REQUIREMENTS
"Aiheu showed them that the earth was large but not boundless, and offered them a choice: "You may choose amongst yourselves who will be fruitful and continue the line, or you may choose to be treated alike, and I shall decide how to limit your numbers."
There was only a short discussion before they answered, saying: "My Lord, we are brothers and cannot deny others what we desire for ourselves." In those days, their love for one another was fresh, for they were equal as spirit children and none oppressed the other.
Aiheu smiled upon them, saying: "There is wisdom in compassion. You shall all be fruitful, but you will face challenges from your own people and from other peoples."
Aiheu seperated them into two groups, and one group dwarfed the other. “To the greater group, I give the plants of the field and the fruits of the trees. But lest you strip the earth of all green things with your offspring, I give the lesser group a taste for blood. To them I give the eaters of plants.”
Some of the plant eaters were upset and cried out to God that they should not all die. To this, Aiheu answered, “I offer you to the hunters, but they must catch you first. Be vigilant, wise, and careful, and you will not perish from the land I give you.”
For a while life was fearful for the hunter and the hunted, but as the seasons passed they discovered new pleasures, and from them new life. And only then did they fully appreciate the wonder of their existance.
Rafiki and Makaka heard the climax of a hunt very close to the baobab. Makaka is stunned; he was seeing his friends in a new light; he knew they hunted for a living, but he’d never seen a kill in all its gory detail before.
Makaka turned to Rafiki. “They are so gentle sometimes.”
“So are you. You must the creation, when Aiheu offered a choice to all living things, and all of them agreed that this way was better than the alternatives. We all live, love, and die. We are all children of the same God, and when we do what we are called to do, we return to him, all reaching the same destination and the same joy. There will be no room in a heart full of love and wonder for hard feelings.”
Makaka headed over to join the fray. Quickly he grabbed a piece of meat and bit down. As he chewed, his face screwed up in displeasure. But unwilling to spit it out, he continued to chew slowly.
“Good, isn’t it?” one of the cubs said. Makaka nodded his head, swallowed hard, and went back to Rafiki.
"Ugh!" He stuck out his tongue as if it had been burned. The moist, musky smell filled his breath as he breathed out, and flooded his throat, emanating from his red-flecked face. “Eeew! Do you have any Tiko root?”
Rafiki got some from a gourd. He handed a piece to Makaka who chewed it rapidly, filling his breath with the rich minty aroma that took the smell of raw meat away and settled his stomach.
“They like this stuff?”
“Love it. Still, you were very brave. I don’t think I could have swallowed that stuff--not raw, anyhow.”
He kept chewing the Tiko root. "Oh yeah. That’s much better. May I have some water to wash it down?"
Uzuri came over bearing a piece of meat with a broad smile on her face. “This is the best part. It was hard to get this away from those greedy gusses.”
“You did this for me?” Makaka said.
“It was no trouble. Not for my special little boy.”
Makaka looked at her expectant smile. He picked up the piece of meat and without hesitation took a large bite. “Thanks so much,” he said, a little drop of warm blood running down his cheek.