Good Morning, Gorillas (4 page)

The pounding ended. There was silence … a long silence.

Jack opened his eyes. He peeked around the tree. The silverback was sitting on the ground. His lips were curved in a smile. He looked pleased with himself.

Was his whole act a fake?
Jack wondered.

Jack didn’t know whether to be scared or to laugh. The only thing he
did
know was he still had to get to Annie!

Jack pulled out the research book. He found the gorilla chapter again. He read:

Jack packed up his research book. He put his pack on his back. Then he went down on his knees.

Jack took a deep breath. He smiled a friendly smile. Pressing down on his knuckles, he moved out from behind the tree. His fingers hurt as he walked on them.

The silverback grunted.

Jack didn’t look up. He kept smiling a friendly smile as he crawled through the brush toward the clearing.

When he got to the edge of the clearing, he glanced back. The giant gorilla was following him. He was frowning, but he didn’t seem about to attack.

Jack kept going. He moved into the clearing. Then he stopped.

More gorillas were waking up. A large gorilla hugged Bu-bu as if to comfort her.

When Bu-bu saw Jack, she screeched joyfully.

All the other gorillas turned to look at him. They made nervous sounds.

Jack’s heart pounded. But he just smiled his friendly smile and kept crawling. He crawled around the gorillas and over to Annie.

“Wake up!” he said, shaking her.

Annie yawned, then opened her eyes.

“Oh, hi!” she said.

“Are you okay?” asked Jack.

“Sure,” she said. She sat up and looked around. She gasped.

The gorillas were staring at Jack and Annie with bright, darting eyes. The silverback stared the hardest.

“Oh, wow!” said Annie. A joyful smile crossed her face. “Good morning, gorillas!”

Annie kept smiling at the gorillas. “Wow!” she said. “Wow, wow, wow.”

“Didn’t you know you were sleeping next to them?” Jack asked.

“No!” she said. “When you didn’t come back, Bu-bu led me here. But I couldn’t see anything. It was too dark.”

Just then, Bu-bu left her mother’s arms and bounded over to Annie. She climbed into Annie’s lap and hugged her.

Another small gorilla left his mother and ran over to Annie, too. He was about the size of a two-year-old kid.

“
Ho, ho!
” he said. He gave Annie a playful poke.

“Ho, ho yourself!” said Annie. “Is Ho-ho your name?”

She tickled Ho-ho. She tickled Bu-bu, too. The two small gorillas made laughing sounds and fell onto their backs.

The two mother gorillas laughed, too.
Huh-huh-huh,
they said.

Jack felt a little jealous. He wanted the gorillas to like him as well. But he didn’t know how to join in the fun. So he just sighed and pulled out his notebook. He added to his “gorilla behavior” list:

Suddenly, he heard a low growl.

He looked up. The silverback had moved closer to him. He was glaring.

“That big guy doesn’t understand what you’re doing!” Annie called to Jack. “He’s never seen anyone take notes before.”

Jack quickly put his notebook away.

The giant gorilla huffed. Then he turned to his family and gave a short bark.

The gorillas began lining up behind the silverback. The baby traveled in his mother’s arms. Ho-ho traveled on his mother’s back. Bu-bu and Annie held hands. They all followed the silverback out of the clearing.

“Come on!” Annie called to Jack. “Let’s go with Big Guy and the gang!”

Jack shook his head.

“I don’t think they want
me
to come along,” he said.

Bu-bu screeched at Jack. She held out her free hand to him.

“
Bu-bu
wants you!” said Annie.

Jack smiled shyly. He took Bu-bu’s small, warm hand. Then he walked with Annie and the gorillas out of the clearing.

On their ramble through the cloud forest, the gorillas found food everywhere. They munched flowers and ferns and leaves. They swallowed and burped.

They munched twigs and branches and pieces of bark and bamboo. They swallowed and burped.

As the gorillas ate breakfast, it started to rain again. But they didn’t seem to mind.

Annie didn’t seem to mind, either. She and Bu-bu played tag in the drizzly woods. They ran around the trees, laughing and screeching.

Jack tried to follow them, but he gave up. He was tired and cold. Shivering, he stood under a mossy tree to keep dry.

While he was alone, Jack sneaked his notebook out of his pack. He made a new list:

As he wrote, he heard a low growl. He looked up.

Big Guy had spotted him. The silverback was standing close by. He was frowning at Jack, his lips tucked in a tight line.

“Sorry, sorry!” said Jack. He quickly put away his notebook.

Big Guy kept frowning.

Jack quickly tried to act like a gorilla. He went down on all fours. He tore off the leaf of a plant. He took a bite. It tasted bitter, like vinegar. Jack pretended to munch and swallow and burp.

Big Guy huffed, then moved on. As soon as he was gone, Jack spat out the leaf.

“Yuck, yuck, yuck!” he said, wiping his tongue.

Jack felt a tap on his back. He jumped. But it was just Ho-ho. The small gorilla offered him a twig to eat.

“Oh, no thanks, Ho-ho,” said Jack.

Ho-ho kept holding out the twig.

“Oh, okay,” said Jack, politely taking it. “I’ll eat it later.” He put the twig into his backpack.

Ho-ho’s mom came over to Jack. She held some berries to his lips.

“Uh, no thanks,” Jack said.

The gorilla stared at him with a sad look.

“Oh, okay,” said Jack. He opened his mouth. And Ho-ho’s mom fed him the berries.

Jack munched the berries. To his surprise, they tasted good. He swallowed, then burped just like a gorilla. This time, he wasn’t pretending.

Bu-bu’s mom then came over to Jack. She offered him some rainwater from a cupped plant. Jack was very thirsty. He sipped the water. It tasted fresh and cold.

Bu-bu’s mom took Jack’s hand in her wide hand. She led him through the forest to Annie and Bu-bu.

Bu-bu screeched happily when she saw Jack. She threw her furry arms around him.

“Hi! We missed you!” Annie said to Jack. “Are you having fun?”

Jack smiled and nodded.

Actually, he
was
having fun now. He didn’t mind the rain so much anymore. He didn’t feel so left out. Some of the gorillas really seemed to like him, he thought. They seemed to like him a lot.

The rain ended. Slowly the feeding came to a stop.

Big Guy led his family into a clearing. The tall grass sparkled with misty sunlight.

The silverback lay down and tucked his arms under his head.

The other gorillas gathered around him. Some beat the grasses until they were flat.

Ho-ho’s mom made a bed of weed stalks for Ho-ho. Bu-bu’s mom made a bed of leaves for Bu-bu. Then she made two extra beds for Jack and Annie.

They lay down with all the gorillas to take their naps. Jack used his backpack for a pillow.

Lying on his leafy bed, Jack watched the mother of the baby gorilla groom her small baby. The mother parted his hair and searched through it, picking at his skin now and then.

The baby soon wiggled free and crawled around in the grass. His mother’s gaze then rested on Annie. She moved over to Annie and gently grabbed one of her pigtails. She studied it carefully.

“What are you doing?” Annie asked.

“She’s looking for bugs, I think,” said Jack.

“Oh, yuck!” said Annie, sitting up.

Jack laughed. Just then, the baby’s mother reached for him.

“Oops! No thanks! No bugs on me!” he said, and he sat up, too.

The mother gorilla lay back in the grass and closed her eyes. Her baby crawled over to Annie.

“Hi, Little Guy,” Annie said tenderly. She picked up the baby and stroked his head. The baby smiled at her and closed his eyes.