บท 12: The Mysterious Ape Chibuzo
#In the Jungle of Akunomori
Time passed by, but Mizuno did not feel it. He was poking here and poking there with his branch. He was sometimes going over a fallen tree trunk or sometimes under. With Fedor's experienced teaching, Mizuno was able to locate food for ants.
"Ants?" Mizuno raised his eyebrows and said, "Old man, Fedor! Am I looking for your food now?" The surprise and confusion in his voice showed he clearly thought otherwise.
"Of course! We are looking for my food! You must feed your master first, no?" Mr. Fedor was having a blast.
"Aww! Come on, Mr. Fedor! I am hungry! Tell me how to find food, please!"
"Ahem! Yes, my dear pupil! You are right under a tree. Do you see up there, boy? Fruits."
"Oh! Can I eat them?"
"Even before I answer that, you need to tell me how you are thinking of going up there, boy? Can you climb a tree?"
"Nnn..no!"
"Then why ask if you can eat it or not? Even if you can eat the fruit, you cannot get to it. So, you should not waste your energy asking the wrong questions. Tell me first, how do you plan to get the fruits?"
Mizuno looked at the fruits with a pair of sad puppy eyes and wetted his lips with his tongue.
"I wish someone would go and fetch me the fruits!"
"Huh! Is that all you got, boy? Use someone to get your job done. Tell me what if someone goes up but then eats all of them while you keep watching him like a buffoon you are?"
"Buffoon? What is that? Can I eat that?"
"It means you are not clever at all."
"Then? What do I do?"
"Well, you can start learning how to climb a tree!"
"But I don't know how to do that!"
"Wait...don't worry! I have someone who can teach you that." Mr. Fedor had a mysterious smile on his face.
"Move closer to the tree, boy!" Mizuno moved toward the trunk of the tree a bit more with a question mark in his eyes.
"Ooooi! Chibuzo! You there, chimp?" Mr. Fedor called out to someone in the tree.
There was no response at first. Then a curious face with a very peculiar smile appeared from among the leaves, as if the face were also a part of the branch of the tree, like it was hanging with the leaves from the branch. The face sneakily appeared—smiled, showing all teeth. What a happy face...
"There you are! Come down! We need to talk, man!" Mr. Fedor tried to convince the owner of the face to come down, but the face smiled again. Then suddenly the face crawled a bit of distance, heads down, and then just hung from the branch, holding it with one hand and giving swings left and right.
Then he held the branch with his legs first, then did a somersault in the air, went to another branch, and violently shook the tree as if he were fighting something big.
He was happily and excitedly making some monkey noises: "Ikkiiii kii kii! Hoo hoo hoo!" and suddenly stopped, looked at Mizuno, and smiled again. It was as if the chimp was doing all these things intentionally.
"Look at the shenanigans!" Mr. Fedor looked at the ape and pointed his stick at him. "Would you stop that?" The ape smiled again, pant-hooted, and shook the branch he was sitting on. Clearly, he was testing Mr. Fedor's patience.
"I am going to stop talking to you, Chibuzo! Don't come crying next time you need advice from this old man!"
Chibuzo looked right—looked left—and, like the culprit he was, slowly came down the tree trunk. Mizuno was very curious, looking at the primate.
"What an interesting fellow! A chimpanzee listening to an ant?" Mizuno thought to himself.
"Mr. Fedor, is his name Chibuzo?" He looked at Mr. Fedor and asked.
"Yes, he is a little naughty and very dumb! But she has a good heart! He will be a great friend to you."
The chimp came down and waddled toward Mizuno. Then he touched Mizuno's hand with his right hand and then shyly smiled and covered his face with his left.
"Oh! Come on, Chibu! Do you act like a full chimp nowadays? You have contracted some peculiar habits while living among their kind." Mr. Fedor did not fall for Chibuzo's chimp-like acts. He was not really a chimpanzee. Mizuno did not have to know that right now.
The ape stood properly and talked in a human voice, "Ah! Mr. Fedor, you are a two-legged thing! Interesting! Where did you collect this specimen from?"
"Look at this monkey! Now you are talking! Saleh told me to teach this kid some things about living in the jungle. Teach him how to climb a tree. This should be easy for you, right?"
The ape came closer to Mizuno and started feeling his arms and leg muscles. "Mmmmnn...too weak. Hmmm, too weak indeed! He won't be able to climb trees!"
"Then find a way to make him do it! I will be resting here. I am tired from all the work now." Mizuno looked at Fedor with his big round eyes and said, "But I was the one who carried you! Why are you tired?"
"If I say I am tired, then I am tired! Now begin!"
Now Chibuzo sat under the tree, and so did Mizuno.
"Humans are different from the monkeys that roam the trees. Their body is built in that way: long and strong arms and hand-like feet. So, it is not possible to imitate monkeys."
"So, how do I eat those fruits? You can drop some for me, Chibuzo," Mizuno innocently smiled. Chibuzo made monkey-like noises and smiled, showing all his teeth. "Why would I?"
"Why not? You can climb, but I cannot!"
"Just because I can climb trees, why do I have to give you fruits? I will eat them all! If you want food, earn it by force! That is the rule of the jungle!"
Mizuno was really hungry. "Chibuzo! Carry me to the treetop, then! Please, I am hungry!"
"Nope! Work first, and food later. Being hungry will not kill you. Use this hunger to make yourself strong. If you are not hungry, you will become lazy. You will not work hard. You will waste your time doing nothing but playing and wasting away your precious life. Now come with me."
Chibuzo took Mizuno to a smaller tree with strong branches.
"From today onward, try hanging from the branches. Make your arms strong. When you can hang from a branch for a long time, I will show you what to do next."
Mizuno was a bit disheartened, but he did comply. He started hanging. It was not easy. His grips kept slipping, and his muscles kept giving away.
"Just think that you are playing with me. Here! I will hang from the branch as well. If your hands feel tired, use your two legs to hang from there upside down like this." Chibuzo showed how Mizuno could cross his legs to hang from the branch.
However, these were very difficult at first. Mizuno was too weak to lift his legs toward the branch against gravity. So he practiced hanging until he could no longer move his hands. The sun was setting, and it was getting really dark. Mizuno felt pain all over his body.
"Ufff! It is so difficult!"
"Well, nothing is easy anywhere! Wherever you go, you need to earn your keep all by yourself. No one will help you! So, learn your lessons from this practice! And here...some reward for your hard work, boy!" Chibuzo handed him a few big fruits. Mizuno smiled brightly and thanked Chibuzo for his kindness. He voraciously ate all of them.
"Eat slowly, boy! You'll choke," said Mr. Fedor.
Mizuno and Mr. Fedor took their leave from the ape. As soon as they were out of sight, the chimp slowly turned into a shadow-like figure and melted into the thin air. He clearly was not an ape, as Mizuno thought. In the jungle, there roamed creatures whose existence was still unknown to Mizuno.
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