Chasing Harpo
Page 19
He looked and saw a button just like it on his side. He pushed the button and watched the seeing-rock move just a bit and it stopped. He pushed it again and held the button. The seeing-rock went away. He held the button down again and the seeing-rock came back. He made the seeing-rock go away and come back again several times.
He looked at Carl and huffed in pleasure. He wondered if there was a button in his jungle to move the big seeing-rock. He would remember to look for a button. It would be fun to make the seeing-rock go away when he had a bunch of hairless-not-people there. He would be able to smell them.
Harpo stuck a hand through where the seeing-rock had been. He huffed in surprise as the wind caught his hand and pushed it back through the seeing-rock-place. He stuck his hand back through the seeing-rock-place and tried to grab the wind. The wind pushed his hand back.
He grabbed a half-eaten fruit and held it into the wind. He huffed in laughter as the wind took the fruit away. He was not upset at the loss of the fruit. It was bitter on the outside, but sweet and juicy on the inside. All he lost was the bitter outside.
He looked at Carl to see if he would stop and pick up the fruit for him, but Carl did not look. He made the hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage go wherever they were going.
Harpo stuck his head out the seeing-rock place. He looked down, but the fruit was not there. It was gone.
Harpo might have hung farther out the seeing-rock-place, but the wind blasted his face. The rush of smells startled him. He rested his chin on the seeing-rock-place and let the wind bring smells to him. The smells were strange and not at all what he had ever smelled before. They came and went too fast to identify them even if he had smelled them before.
As Harpo let the wind wash the smells over his face, he closed his eyes.
He awoke with a start when the hairless-not-people-go fast-cage slowed down to a stop. Harpo looked down, but the fruit the wind had taken was not there. He looked at Carl and huffed drowsily.
Carl said, “Harpo. We babble-babble there. A few more babble-babble and we babble safe.”
Carl gestured an arm at another hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage.
A hairless-not-people got out of the other hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage. It ran to their hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage and jumped into the back.
It pounded the top and shouted, “Go, Carl. I am good.”
Harpo slapped the top of the hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage and huffed in amusement.
Carl made them go forward again. They stopped going on the hard rock path and moved onto a dirt path.
Harpo snorted when dust began to drift in through the seeing-rock place. But, they had not gone far when a loud noise startled Harpo.
“Babble! Babble-babble, hold tight babble,” Carl shouted.
There was not much for Harpo to hold on to, but he clutched at the seeing-rock-place as the hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage slid to a stop.
Through the dust, Harpo could see another hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage had blocked the dirt path. Hairless-not-people stood in the dirt path. They shouted at Carl.
Carl shouted back. Harpo did not listen. It was all nonsense babble.
Harpo squinted through the front seeing-rock. A female he remembered from the zoo stood there. It was not Teri, but one of the females that helped Carl.
Carl got out of the hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage. He held out his hand for Harpo to get out with him. Harpo swarmed across the seat and climbed to the ground. He took Carl’s hand so his servant would not get lost in this new place.
The hairless-not-people from the back of their hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage jumped down and stepped between them and the other hairless-not-people. Carl waved him away.
Harpo huffed happily. He had never been close to this female without a seeing-rock or without the not-twigs between them. Like many hairless-not-people she seemed frightened to be around him. Harpo knew that was right. The hairless-not-people were not-people and should be frightened of him. He was the dominate one.
He waved at her and laughed heartily when she waved back. He huffed loudly and showed all his teeth in his best imitation of hairless-not-people smiles.
He recognized the other hairless-not-people standing there. It was strange to see it here without the seeing-rock between them. This male always came to visit Harpo with two small female hairless-not-people in hand. He looked around, but could not see the two small females. It stood in a challenge stance. He wondered if Carl or the other male would charge first. It would not be fair if Harpo interfered in a hairless-not-people male challenge, but he would if he had to. Carl was his servant. Harpo would not allow Carl to be hurt.
*
JACK saw Harpo wave at them.
Natalia waved back.
Jack almost took a step backwards when the ape hooted loudly and showed his teeth. Dr. Marks did not let go of the ape, but at best, it appeared to be a tenuous grasp on the creature. They were only twenty feet away. He still had his gun holstered. He wondered how fast an orangutan could move twenty feet.
Jack was pleased. He had called this one right. State Police cruisers blocked every other road to the Smithson Sanctuary. A county map had led him and his small team to this back road. He knew Marks and Smithson would try a back way into the sanctuary.
Spike strips stopped the truck. It blew out all four tires, but the truck slid closer to them on the loose gravel road than he estimated it would. He found this dirt road quick, but not quickly enough to get more troopers here as backup. A cruiser was on the way to help block in the fugitives if they decided to run.
He glanced behind his cruiser. Steve crouched down out of sight. Steve clearly had the tranquilizer gun aimed at the ape. He realized it was too late to ask how fast the tranquilizer would work. Even a human could cross twenty feet before he could draw his service revolver and fire. He also realized it was too late to find out if his .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun would stop a charging orangutan.
Not that he wanted to kill the ape. He wanted the promotion, but he was not sure he wanted it bad enough to kill anyone or anything. He recognized he might not have to make a decision. He might have to draw his gun and shoot if the beast charged them. He had a flash of insight, wondering whether subconsciously he had set this up just this way. He could say he had to shoot, not that he had wanted to kill Harpo.
Still, his nieces would never forgive him if he killed their favorite zoo animal. He remembered he had even bought them stuffed orangutans on their last visit to the zoo. They would not understand, even if he had no choice. He would hate it that they would be mad at him.
He would hate it more if Natalia were mad at him for killing Harpo.
“Dr. Marks,” Jack said in a calm voice. “State Police. I have a warrant for your arrest and a judicial order to take the ape into police custody.”
Marks said, “We haven’t done anything wrong. Please let us pass.”
Harpo tugged Dr. Marks’ hand, pulling the man forward.
“Shoot, Steve!” Jack ordered.
Steve did not fire.
Jack made a grab for his gun, but Natalia laid a hand over his. She did not put enough pressure to stop his movement. It was a soft touch, but it was enough to keep his gun holstered. He glanced at Natalia.
She shook her head no. “Please?”
It was too late in any event. The escaped beast was only a few feet from him.
Jack did not flinch when the ape stopped in front of him. He did not back up when Harpo stuck out a free hand.
Without thinking, Jack took Harpo’s hand. The orangutan did not shake Jack’s hand. Instead, he pulled his other hand loose from Dr. Marks’ grasp. He reached around and hugged Jack, patting him softly on the back.
Jack did not know what to do. He looked down at the beast. Harpo looked up and grinned back.
“Crap!” Jack said. “Get out of here, you three.”
**
HARPO lay in his own tree in his own jungle. He stared at the sky. He roll
ed his head to look at the seeing-rock where the hairless-not-people gathered to entertain him. He sniffed cautiously. Carl had taken out a small corner of the seeing-rock and replaced it with a tangle of not-twigs. Neither he nor the hairless-not-people could even stick a finger through.
Harpo could now hear and smell his hairless-not-people visitors. There was a lot more of them than before. It was hard to tell one from the other because there was so many of them.
Harpo had looked for a button to make the seeing-rock go away, but he had not found one. He decided that was okay. He did not want that many hairless-not-people coming into his jungle. He realized if he could get through a seeing-rock-place to get to them, they could get through it to get to him.
Carl had moved the buttons by the rock-not-rock. Harpo could not reach those buttons any more. He could not make it a not-rock and get from his jungle into the cave-between-jungles.
Carl gave Harpo a new button. Whenever Harpo pushed the button, he got good-music. The good-music did not stay on, but was good-music for a while and then stopped. Harpo had to hit the button if he wanted to hear more.
Harpo had not understood Carl when Carl explained about Harpo’s many new friends. He had friends who brought him things. He did not care where baskets of fruit came from. Carl brought the food to him and it tasted good. He did not care about where the new balls came from. He had new balls to play with and that made him happy. He did not care who made the new water fountain in his jungle. It was fun to splash in the water. He did not care about the new sign saying the music was provided by WBAM-FM, Birmingham’s best hip hop station and the official sponsor of the orangutan section of the Great Ape House at the Birmingham Zoo. He only cared that when he pushed the button, the good-music came out of the air.
Harpo heard the big rock-not-rock open. It was about time for Carl to come in for the day. Harpo dropped to the ground and made his way to the back of the jungle.
Harpo waved and grunted happily when he saw Carl.
Harpo laughed and hooted with pleasure when he saw Carl was holding Teri’s hand.
The End
HARPO’S Glossary
cave-between-jungles = corridor/hallway
danger-things = guns
empty-pictures = paper
hairless-not-people = humans
hairless-not-people-cage = building
hairless-not-people-go-fast-cage = cars and trucks
hairy-tree-animals = monkeys of any kind
light-not-heat = artificial light
large-hairy-not-people = gorillas
not-animal = machines and machinery of metal and glass
not-speak = nonsensical words
not-twigs = wire mesh
people = orangutans
rock-not-rock = door
seeing-rock = glass
seeing-rock-place = open window
small-hairy-not-people = chimpanzees
soft-not-sticks = crayons
water-beasts = crocodiles
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Connect with the author
https://www.alanblackauthor.com
Author’s biography
Alan Black has been writing novels since 1997 when he started 'Eye on The Prize'. His writing tastes are as eclectic as his reading preferences. Alan admits that he loves writing much more than editing and the whole publishing process. Marketing of his work leaves him as baffled as the whole string theory thing.
Alan was born in central Kansas, but grew up in Gladstone, Missouri, graduating from Oak Park Senior High School and eventually earned a degree from Longview Community College. He spent most of his adult life in the Kansas City area (with the exception of a few years in the U.S. Air Force), but he and his wife now live in sunny Arizona. He says the dry desert air stimulates his creativity more than the juicy air in Missouri (pronounced here as 'misery').
His desire to write started in the second grade. He was given an assignment to write a short story about Greek mythology. His teacher took the time to call his parents. Although neither his father or his mother remember the incident, it had an impact on him eventually leading him to finally write (and most importantly finish) his first manuscript. It took two years to complete 'Eye on The Prize'. He has gotten faster since then, completing the last manuscript in three weeks.
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Books By Alan Black
https://www.alanblackauthor.com
General Fiction
Chasing Harpo
An Ozark Mountain Series
With Bernice Knight
The Friendship Stones (Book One)
The Granite Heart (Book Two)
The Heaviest Rock (Book Three) (coming soon)
Historical Action/Adventure
Eye on the Prize (coming soon)
Science Fiction
Metal Boxes
Chewing Rocks
Steel Walls and Dirt Drops (coming soon)
Titanium Texicans (coming soon)
Larry Goes to Space (coming soon)
A Planet with No Name (coming soon)
Non-Fiction
How to Start, Write and Finish Your First Novel (coming soon)
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PRAISE FOR OTHER BOOKS:
The Friendship Stones by Alan Black
Growing up in the Ozarks in the 1920s
An engrossing coming of age story set in the Ozark Mountains right after World War I. The heroine, 12-year-old LillieBeth Hazkit, lives with her parents in a two-room rented cabin. Work is scarce in the mountains, and her father, who was gassed in World War I, has to take a job far away at a charcoal burning company and is able to come home only on the weekend. The work does (not help) his damaged lungs
LillieBeth cheerfully does a round of chores that would make a grown man blanch today. She also “harvests” small game for dinner with the family’s 22 rifle. She can go to school in a one-room schoolhouse only once a week because it’s so far from home. She brings the rest of the week’s work home to do there. With her cozy home and her parents she feels rich. After all, doesn’t she have two dresses, one for work and one for Sunday?
From a Sunday sermon she learns that God wants everybody to love all people, even the unlovable ones, so she sets out to befriend an old recluse, Fletcher Hoffman, a man who rode with Quantrill’s Raiders the Civil War and did his share of killing afterwards. He just wants to be left alone.
The story revolves around LillieBeth’s attempts to befriend Hoffman and the (violent) actions of a pair of louts who attack LillieBeth and have enjoyed raping women in the neighborhood for years, destroying their lives and any possibility they could marry. It’s the women’s word against theirs. They always say the women wanted it.
In addition, LillieBeth’s landlady orders them to leave their (rented) cabin so that her son, his wife and his family will have a place to live. This will leave the Hazkit family homeless, and LillieBeth will be forced to leave the only home she has ever known.
LillieBeth’s emotions are becoming more complex as she grows into womanhood. She is confused by her conflicting emotions, wanting to do the right thing—to follow Bible’s injunction to love her neighbors, but she finds it hard to love the men who attacked her and the landlord who is evicting her family.
Black gives us a vivid description of life in the Ozark Mountains in the 1920s. He also gives us believable characters which we can love or hate as the story requires.
Highly recommended. And when you finish reading it, give it to your 12-year-old daughter to read.
By Marilynn Larew (author of The Spider Catchers)
Metal Boxes by Alan Black
Thoroughly entertaining
Found I actually lost track of time when I was reading. Has been awhile since a book has taken me there.
By Mike Proffitt
Loved it
line like that you know it is gonna be a great ride with all the twists and turns and ups and downs. It is clever, funny and engages you. I definitely look forward to
this author’s next book whatever it is!!!!!
By Tammie
Great Book!
Great read. The flow of the book was well thought out and engaging. At times it was like I was there watching it all through Stone’s eyes. Very good read. Would like to see more stories on this character in future books. They’d be worth the read as I couldn’t put this eBook away!
By Brian A.
A fun evening
an extended combat of attrition and its culture a little light but again within the sub genre all of this is to be expected.
I would read another in the same setting happily.
By Robert Casey
Chewing Rocks by Alan Black
A Place to Escape To
Mr. Black's heroine is again a highly competent if somewhat unusually designed person. Highly competent women are not the usual thing in Sci Fi, although it is getting more popular.
The story line is easy to follow and you will be rooting for the good guys all the way and hoping the villains get their just rewards. You won't be disappointed. You will also find a couple of nice bits of technology to deal with.
A fast reader could get through this in one sitting and it will be worth your while to do so.
By David P. Frankel (author of The Third Person)
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