from my collection of short stories called THE LITTLE BOOK OF COMPLEXITIES & ABSURDITIES:
“Tomorrow is the big day,” said one monkey in a cage to a sickly pale-faced monkey in another cage.
“They should use chimps. They’re much smarter than us,” said the pale-faced monkey.
“But you’re a Space Monkey.”
“I don’t want to go,” said the pale-faced monkey.
“Even Charles Lindbergh would be jealous.”
And the pale-faced monkey said, “I like my cage. I like seeing the ground. I like eating real non-dehydrated bananas.”
“In that case, I have an idea,” said the other monkey. Using a piece of straw and a banana peel, he unlocked the cages and switched places with the pale-faced monkey.
The next day, in the year l958, the other monkey was shot into space. The headlines read: First Monkey In Space! and he became a national celebrity.
Later that year, the pale-faced monkey who was now emaciated and sick with malaria contracted from a lab experiment died. The research findings from his death would eventually save thousands of lives worldwide.
***
Copyright © 2011 by Rob Dragan
