The Dead Monkey: Chapter VIII

Hugh Hamilton

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Humphrey Jones."
"Ah yes, right, um, okay. Uh... What can you tell me about monkeys?" asked Hugh.
"Quite a lot actually. I own this monkey store, you see."
"Yes, I gathered that much." Hugh stared around warily at the various monkeys hanging off shelves and boxes and pocketed his hands.
"Is there anything specific you'd like to know?"
"Yes, it's about their eyes."
"Their eyes?"
"Yes... Are they at all valuable?" Hugh half whispered conspiratorially.
"Oh, it depends," said Humphrey, slightly flustered by the line of questioning.
"On what?"
"On whether the monkey around it was valuable."
"So they have no specific value on their own?"
"Generally no, but there is one..." Jones trailed off as his eyes wandered around the darkened African decor.
"What?" pried Hugh impatiently.
"Who are you anyway?" asked Jones suspiciously.
"No one."
"Good."
"Go on."
"Okay, there was this one monkey."
"Yes?"
"The last one left of its kind."
"Uh huh."
"And it developed the strangest physical anomaly…"
"Yeah…?"
"One of it's eyes—" He leaned closer to Hugh for dramatic effect. "—Was an opal!"
"An opal? Are you sure?"
"Quite sure. I've seen it with my very own eyes."
"How could it see out of it?"
"The same way we see out of our eyes."
"Was this both of its eyes?"
"No, just the left one."
"Where did you see it anyway?"
"There's this couple down the road. They called me in once to check up on their ill monkey."
"Interesting."
"Of course the moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it."
"The opal or the monkey?"
"Both."
"So what did you do?"
"Why, I tried to take it!"
"What happened?"
"This." Jones reached into his pocket and pulled out a neatly typed on piece of paper.
"What's that?" asked Hugh.
"A restraining order."
"Ah, I thought I'd seen it before."
"It seems you can't just take things anymore."
"No, the worlds changed quite a bit since we were monkeys."
"What do you mean, 'were'?"
Hugh stared blankly at Humph.
"It was a joke!"
"Oh. Ha ha," murmured Hugh.
"Now, I'll let you in on a little secret."
Hugh leaned closer.
"There's something going on," said Jones.
"That's it?"
"Well, I haven't quite discovered what it is yet, but it is going on."
"So, something is happening but you don't know what it is?"
"No."
"Do you, Mr Jones?"
"I said no."
Hugh let it go at that and began inspecting the monkey books.