Chapter – 2 The Thief
“Mia, did you take my mirror?” That was her mom, waking her up in the rudest way possible. The previous day, she had accidentally fell asleep in the tree house and was woken up by her dad to get her back to bed. She was feeling a bit sore.
“How would I know?” She mumbled back sleepily.
“I checked everywhere..” Her mother worried her lips. The mirror was precious to her, not only because it was made of precious stones and was the most expensive thing she owned, but also because that was her wedding gift.
“What can I do now? Maybe you are right Mia, maybe there is a thief somewhere in the locality. I cannot loose it. I’ll let the local policemen know about this. Let’s see if someone else has had their stuff stolen too. I am off now Mi, you are in charge, be good, ok?” Her mom left minutes later, leaving her alone in the house. Her dad had to get back to work.
She got up soon after, and after served herself some breakfast. She then played piano for a while. She was brilliant at it. Afterwards, she decided to climb back up the tree since she didn’t have anything much to do, that she could, in her current condition.
She soon resumed her previous pose in the tree house floor. Sitting there idly, she ate chocolate and listened to music from her beloved radio.
Suddenly, she heard a “SCREEEEECH..”
Her few minutes of peace was disturbed by someone rudely grabbing her chocolate. That terrible screech was all she heard, the rustle of the leaves were the only thing that indicated where whatever grabbed her chocolate and made that weird sound might have come from.
She was suddenly scared. Her vision being half blurred didn’t help matters. Suddenly something came swinging at her, she screamed and ducked.
”Huuuohhhh” and then suddenly, her music seemed to come from further away. She swiftly looked up to see the blurry figure of something that resembled a monkey, holding her precious radio, the only thing that she had of her grandfather. The creature, was sitting on the branch, just out of her reach, seemingly inspecting it. “Oy! Get back down! Give it back to me! You..you thing…give it to me! NOW!” She was horrified, and furious.
It just seemed to laugh at her face. It jumped further upward.
“Come here! Return it to me! It’s wrong to steal! You can’t just snatch things off people! That’s so rude!”
It didn’t budge. She really needed the radio back. So she tried being nice. “Come on! Aren’t you a nice little monkey! Come here! Please give me that box. Please…, you are a good monkey aren’t you….Come on…Ugh..!” The monkey seemed to be enjoying the show. She tried throwing things to it – or more like, at it, like the hat seller from a story she had read in her childhood. She tried offering it bits from her lunch, she tried speaking to it, she tried everything. And finally, she lost her patience.
“That’s it! You will come down right now, and give my radio back to me. You got it? No more nonsense from your part. I’ve had enough of it!” And then something very unexpected happened. The monkey seemed to have lost its cheerfulness and suddenly looked sad and guilty. It’s ears drooped, along with his tail. It jumped to where Mia was, dropped the radio low into the ground and got back to its previous position, It let out a pathetic ‘ook’ and then covered its face with its tiny paws.
The monkey looked very sorry and miserable. Mia was understandably more than a bit shocked and surprised. She was just yelling at it out of frustration. She never expected it to hear, let alone understand what she was saying.
“Oh! Thank you! Listen, I’m really sorry for being so rude..I was just in a bad mood. Yesterday morning I lost my glasses and today my mom lost her mirror, now you nearly took my radio and..” She trailed off feeling like an idiot, talking to a monkey. But it seemed to perk up a bit. She felt bad for making it so sad. “Come here, I won’t hurt you, have some chocolate, I have more, or some orange from yesterday’s picnic.” Although she was a bit scared and it felt a bit like she was in a trance, she peeled an orange and then offered it to it. The monkey seemed to be on guard, but slowly, it inched towards her hand. When it was close enough to take the offered food, it quickly snatched it off her hand and ran back. Mia grinned. A monkey for company. Wonderful. Its not everyday you can feed a monkey and have it listen to you, especially after you yelled your head at it minutes before.. She sat there all evening, until it got too dark to see and her mom called from inside. She had returned early noon, having registered a complaint to the nearest police station. The monkey sat there with her, taking titbits from Mia every now and then. That night, Mia fell asleep very fast.
