Tales Of The Gurrier

One day Monkey was walking in the forest and he came upon Bird. Bird was pacing back and forth in the sandy earth of the forest floor shaking her head from side to side in quick little movements.

‘What’s wrong Bird?’ said Monkey.

‘Oh Monkey,’ said Bird, I’m in trouble. Big, big, trouble. I need your help Monkey. You are clever and quick and strong and I am small and weak and when I think my thoughts rush about from place to place and cannot settle. Can you help me Monkey?’

‘What can I do?’ said Monkey

‘Oh it’s Snake, he has hidden in the trees Monkey. Up there near the top of the canopy. You know I cannot go up there. Oh no, oh no, no, no. Not up there in the sky. There’s so much of it and it’s so wide and blue. So wide and blue without end. But Snake he slithers and he hisses and he hides his scaly body and he wants to eat up my little baby chicks, every one. Help me Monkey, you can climb up, up, to the tallest tip of the tallest tree in the Forest. Won’t you help me Monkey. Climb up to the top of the tallest tree and be my look out. Call out to me when you see Snake coming and I will hide my babies from him deep in the earth were he will not go.’

So Monkey agreed to help Bird because he liked to climb trees and he was very good at it. He found the tallest tree in the Jungle, old Grandfather Banyan and up, up, up he climbed.

Grandfather Banyan his wooden belly wide as the ocean floor, his mighty arms they reach so far into the sky little rain clouds form in his branches. His roots go down deep, so deep they twist and turn around the centre of the earth.

And as he climb Grandfather Banyan speak to Monkey in a voice that sound a little like the wind and a little like the rain and a little like the earth all sighing together.

‘What you doin’ little Monkey,’ said Grandfather Banyan.

‘I’m climbing these branches to find good look out spot to help Bird. She needs me to help her catch Snake if he comes crawling hungry on his belly.’

‘Aaah, I see.’ said Grandfather Banyan. ‘Why you wanna do that?’ he said in voice like the creaking of boughs.

And Monkey he stopped climbing and thought for a moment and said ‘Bird asked me to help.’

‘And what Bird gonna do for you then?’ said Grandfather Banyan. ‘I tell you what you help me first and I give you a reward. Then you go help Bird. What you think?’

‘What kind of a reward,’ said Monkey.

‘What kind you want?’ said Grandfather Banyan.

‘Banana’s,’ said Monkey. He was fond of bananas.

‘Bananas?’ said Grandfather Banyan.

‘I like bananas,’ said Monkey ‘do you have any bananas?’

‘Aaahh’ said Grandfather Banyan and his voice was like the silence in the canopy. ‘I do have one banana.’

‘Just one,’ said Monkey disappointed.

‘Oh yes just one, but it is a very fine one. Would you like to see it.’

‘Yes,’ said Monkey think one very fine banana was better than no bananas.

‘Well you come back tonight when its dark and all the other animals are asleep and I show you how to get it.’

‘Ok,’ said Monkey and quite forgot all about his promise to help Bird so excited was he that he would get this fine banana for helping Grandfather Banyan. So excited in fact that he forgot to ask Grandfather Banyan what he wanted in exchange.

‘That night when the Jungle was sleeping, quiet as the grave and all that was about were the nameless creeping crawling things of the dark Monkey returned to the spot where Grandfather Banyan stood.

‘Pssst, pssst,’ said Monkey ‘I’m here now old grandfather. Where is my reward?’

‘Aahhh’ said Grandfather Banyan and his voice was like the sighing wind . ‘You come back for that fine banana little Monkey?’

‘Yes, yes where is it?’ said Monkey hopping first from one foot and then to the other.

‘Why it right above you see. Look up, right up, right to the top of the tallest tip of my branches do you see it?’

And Monkey craned his neck and looked, up, up, up to the top of the tallest branch at the very tip of Grandfather Banyans mighty arms and there he saw it at last. Hanging there in the sky the biggest, mightiest, grandest banana he had ever seen in his life.

‘Oh,’ said Monkey.

‘Aaah,’ said Grandfather Banyan. ‘You see it now. All you got to do is climb up my branches all the way to the top. Right to the tip of the tallest branch and just pluck that ripe, juicy banana from the sky’

But Monkey was not listening now, he was racing up over the trunk of Grandfather Banyan and up over width of his mighty arms and up, up, up towards the very tip of the tallest branch.

And Grandfather Banyan chuckled to himself with a voice like the rustling of dead leaves.

Up and up and up Monkey climbed always peering above to catch a glimpse of his prize. Soon he was very tired from climbing and rested in the lee of a might bough. He was hungry now but the leaves of Grandfather Banyan were bitter and twisted his mouth at their taste. He spat them out and returned to climbing. Monkey climbed and climbed until he was exhausted but always Grandfather Banyan would urge him on when he tired.

‘Go on little Monkey, almost there, almost there,’ he would say and Monkey would keep climbing a little farther and a littler farther until he had climbed farther than he had ever climbed in his life and below him the Jungle spread out like a great green carpet and he was king of all his sight.

And then as the first tendrils of dawn began to creep over the Jungle little Monkey at last emerged into the grey thin light of dawn and clambered to the very tip of the tallest branch of Grandfather Banyans mighty wooden arms to claim his prize.

But just as Monkey reached the very edge, of the very tip of the very tallest branch, just as he stretched his little furry hand out and could almost grasp his goal he saw with horror it begin to fade in the grey morning light.

‘No, oh no, my banana,’ said Monkey.

‘Quick little Monkey, quick reach for it before it disappears now,’ said Grandfather Banyan.

And Monkey stretched out his paw as far as he could and let go of the branch.

Well the Moon took no more notice of poor little Monkey than you or I would notice a tiny flea. And down, down, down he tumbled from the tallest branch of the tallest tree in the forest. He fell yelping and crying all the way down and what did that mean old Grandfather Banyan do? Why he laughed and laughed at the trick he had played on little Monkey. He laughed until he shook the leaves from his mighty arms and they lay in piles all about his trunk as deep and soft as a feather bed. It was into these piles that Monkey finally landed all cut and bruised and sore but not dead, he was a lucky Monkey after all.

And when Monkey picked himself up and felt his cuts and bruises he stood before Grandfather Banyan and shook his little fist at him and said ‘Why you do that to Monkey? Why you play such mean trick on him?’

‘Aaah’ said Grandfather Banyan ‘and I ask you why you agree to help Bird protect her babies and then you forget all about it?’

And with that there came an awful crying and screeching through the Jungle and Bird come flying into the clearing before Grandfather Banyan in a terrible flutter. But she not see Monkey, because he hide in the pile of leaves, he was a clever Monkey sometimes.

‘Oh Grandfather, oh Grandfather it’s terrible, terrible. My babies, my babies are all gone. That Snake he eat them all up every one. Have you seen Monkey? He was to call out from his lookout if he seen Snake coming. Have you seen him?’

And Grandfather Banyan take pity on Monkey and feel bad for the trick he had played on him and said to Bird.

‘Oh yes. I seen him Bird. He was climbing up, up, up to the very tip of the tallest branch of my mighty arms. Maybe he still up there looking out for Snake.’

And with that up, up, up flew Bird high into the morning air. Up she flew to the very tallest branch of Grandfather Banyan calling out for Monkey all the way.

And that is where she stayed, high in the branches of the Banyan tree and why she never come down on the ground for long. She stays up there with her babies looking for Monkey and calling out to him all of the day. And that is why Monkey he hide all the day long in the boughs of the Banyan tree and never try to climb to the very top no more. And all the day long Grandfather Banyan he spread his mighty arms about them both and chuckle.

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I have always been fond of those creation myth, elemental style folktales. Stories about how Tiger got his stripes and how Anansi tricked his way into a pot of gold. Reading Neil Gaimans Anansi Boys recently put me in mind of them and this is my meagre attempt. Apologies for any heresies I may have committed to someones folk culture. Please feel free to correct the balance by writing a tale of a rapping leprechaun and his sidekick St. George’s dragon or something equally horrible.

This weeks flickr fiction photo was taken by flickr user Gavin Mackintosh. Other particpants this week are Teaandcakes, Elimare, Tadmack, Aquafortis, Chris and Linus Click on the links to read their versions.

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FLICKR FICTION BONUS!

Here’s another one I wrote on this that sort of came to a natural end after a couple of hundred words. Still I kind of like it and there’s no way it would ever make sense without the picture attached so here you go.

A Bonobo and Costello

“So I’m standing there and I’m holding a banana and there’s this other banana except its giant right.”

“You’re holding a giant banana?”

“No I’m holding a banana and there’s this giant banana right.”

“But you just said you were holding a banana.”

“Yeah I am holding a banana, but I’m eating that banana.”

“You’re eating a giant banana?”

“No, no! Listen to me I’m standing there eating a normal sized banana and then I see this giant banana in front of me right.”

“Ok. So let me see you have a normal banana.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re eating the normal banana.”

“Yeah.”

“And then you see another banana.”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s the giant banana?”

“Yeah now you’ve got it.”

“Well why didn’t you just say that in the first place!”

“Sheesh.”

“So where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“The banana.”

“I ate it.”

“You ate the giant banana?”

“No I ate the other banana.”

“So where is it then?”

“Where’s what?”

“The banana!”

“I told you I ate it fool!”

“The giant banana!”

“Oh that, well it was just a dream you know.”

“Oh, right.”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 1:02 am and is filed under Flickr Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.