WENT over to see a dear cousin of mine and didn’t find him at home. “Gone to catch monkeys!” said his wife. “Monkeys!” I exclaimed and she giggled to see my astonished face. I’d known my cousin from the time we were kids; he a little older than me and had watched from afar as he flew his model aero- planes in a field, or involved in other monkey business but catching a monkey was something new.
I went across to his factory and found him with the government authorized monkey catcher, “Monkey’s made a nuisance of himself!” he exclaimed to me, “so we wrote to the government and they’ve sent this guy over!” He didn’t look any like a monkey catcher. “Monkeys have muscle!” I said knowingly, “They’re dangerous!”
“This guy says not to worry, he’s caught thousands!” From on top of his cycle carrier, he brought a box with an opening at the top, big enough for a monkey to slide its hand in. Inside the box was a banana!” “The guy’s nuts!” I said scornfully.
“Wait sir!” said the monkey man and placed the box on top of the compound wall below a tree where the creature was supposed to be. And we waited. “Monkey!” shouted some kids nearby and I watched the huge simian jump from tree to wall, put his hand easily into the slit in the box, grab the nuts inside and then try to get back, but he couldn’t. The box shook while the monkey tried to free his hand.
“Pull out your hand stupid!” I whispered. “It can’t!” said the monkey man next to me. “What do you mean?” I asked amazed. “The opening allows the monkey to slide its hand in, but it’s too small for the fist to come out with the banana!” “Why doesn’t it let it go!” I whispered. “It won’t,” said the monkey man as he approached the monkey, threw an empty sack on it, caught it and caged it. I walked over to the cage and looked in at the frightened creature, “If you’d let go you could have escaped!” I whispered. We walked back home, my cousin and myself, “How was the monkey hunt?” asked his wife.
“Bob’s a bit pensive!” joked my cousin. “Isn’t the monkey like us?” I asked, “We all hang on to something, either our past, some prejudice, something or other, which prevents us from going forward in life!” “True,” said my cousin, “Let go or be trapped for life!” “Write about it Bob” said my cousin’s wife. “And I’m doing just that! Let go or like the monkey, be trapped for life..!
