Sunday July 14th, 2013

The exercise:

Write a little something about: the monkey.

Enjoyed a nice day off with my family, spending a good portion of it having a picnic at the lake. Though Max was more interested in the grass and passersby and crawling around and... pretty much everything... than actually eating anything.

Back to the garden tomorrow.

Mine:

Lewis and Maddox lived in an apartment defined by serenity. They agreed on all major concerns and were able to recognize when a transgression slotted into the No Big Deal category, which therefore allowed it to be ignored completely.

Dishes were never allowed to fester on the counter, empty milk jugs were replaced before the other might find need of it. Messes were rare and, when they did appear, were usually relegated to one of their bedrooms.

Out of sight, out of potential argument.

Newspapers were shared over coffee, each man with his favorite sections. Crosswords were done in pencil and erased when completed (rare) or abandoned (extremely often) so that the other could approach them with a clean slate.

Peace reigned, even as girlfriends entered and exited their lives.

Sadly, this idyllic setting came to a very sudden end the day Lewis came home with his new pet monkey.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your day off does sound pleasant! And yes, small children do seem to find everything other than eating fascinating, but I suppose they're taking it for granted that they'll get fed when they get hungry and so they're not worried about the food disappearing :) I know that's what my dog believes, at any rate!
Lewis and Maddox seem to have an idyllic life going on there, so I wonder what's possessed Lewis to bring home a monkey...?

Continuation
Maddox had looked up from the crossword where he'd maanged to fill in nine entries in four minutes (a personal best) when Lewis came out of his bedroom. To his great surprise he saw that Lewis's pet monkey was wearing Maddox's newest t-shirt and his favourite baseball cap. Lewis said nothing as he picked up his keys from the hook by the front-door and went out, though Maddox could have sworn, just as the door was closing, that Lewis called the monkey 'Maddox'.
If that had been all of the matter, that probably would have been the end of it, for although Maddox would have liked Lewis to have asked first, sparing some clothes for the monkey wasn't such a big deal. However, he came home the next day, tired and cranky from dealing with random customers who'd walked in off the street and started screaming (only in New York, he muttered to himself after they left), and discovered that the only food in the house was bananas, and some impenetrable coconuts. Lewis scowled at him from the kitchen, and the monkey threw a coconut. Maddox retreated, and went shopping.
It wasn't deliberate, he would later explain to his psychotherapist. He'd fully intended to put the food he bought in the kitchen, but when he returned with it the monkey was still throwing coconuts (and the television was ruined, smoking hulk with two coconuts embedded in the screen), and so he fled to his room with the food and stayed in there until it was time to go to work the next morning. When he got home again, he found a note pushed under his door: 'The monkey needs his personal space. You should move out.'
Maddox blanched when he read the note: where would he find such a reasonable flat-mate as Lewis again? Then came the thud of a coconut being thrown at the door, and he decided that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea.
But he wouldn't leave without exacting a small amount of revenge for the monkey.

Marc said...

Greg - your scenario seems quite plausible :P

This is a fascinating little living situation we've managed to concoct. I'm rather tempted to find a reason to return here at some point...