Savage Tales

bananas. It was okay. I mean – yeah, it was okay.
    This is better.

    Oh, I hear him now. He's climbing up the tree. Who's he talking to? Is he talking to me?
    He climbs up and won't look me in the eye. Then I see her. Behind him. In… things. Her body is covered in cloth, like Tarzan's loincloth but… different. Neater. Tidier. I can't see so much of her skin the way I can with Tarzan. Why is she here?
    I walk over to her and smell her. She smells strange. Like flowers but not flowers. Too strong. Not how it should be. Makes my head swell up. I slap her.
    "Uhh!"
    That's her cry. Good. Stupid woman. Human like Tarzan. I still like Tarzan.
    "Cheeta, no!" says Tarzan.
    I look at him. Smile. I look at her, on the floor of our hut in the trees. I look at her and show my teeth. Stupid creature.

    Tarzan puts me out. I try to come back in the hut with them but he won't let me. Because I hit her, I suppose. I look sad and try to gain sympathy but he won't budge.
    I go to the ground but immediately go up a different tree and hang down near the thatched roof and listen. I hear Tarzan. I hear the woman. They are making sounds. It is like the other chimps. I have never heard Tarzan make these sounds.
    I do not like the woman.

    In the morning Tarzan is all smiles and has apparently forgiven me. He brings the woman down and says some jibber-jabber and keeps saying "Jane" and pointing to the woman. She smiles but I see it is not a real smile. The humans cannot fool me. I am smart. I am Cheeta.

    For the next few weeks Tarzan and the woman are in the hut a lot making noises. They let me in the hut again but never when they make the noises. The woman no longer smiles at me. No more fake smiles. Tarzan too seems to have forgotten me.
    Finally after a few more weeks of this, Tarzan starts to leave the hut again, swinging and running through the forest. Like he is meant to be, not with the evil woman. Jane.
    When he goes on adventures to battle Ant-Men and the mad apes of Silouon, and visits other places that he loves, I stay well away from the hut and the woman. She cleans the hut now. I don't care. I don't care about Tarzan and pleasing him. Let her do it. I don't care.
    But one day when Tarzan is gone I go near the hut. I stay back and look in through the air hole in the side of the hut. The woman is there, sitting on the chair Tarzan made. She is not smiling and water comes from her eyes. I think she is not happy.
    I don’t like her. I know that. So I don't know why I do what I do. I go into the hut, she looks up and sees me. She looks afraid or angry. I show her my teeth, but this time I smile. She looks at me and has to smile too. No one can resist my smile.
    I walk closer to her. She puts her hand on my head and scratches it. It feels good. I put my hand on her head and scratch it like she did mine. She smiles and then I leave.

    About a week after that, Tarzan left and didn't come home in the evening. We thought he might just be exploring a hidden cave or sailing the high seas for an extended period. A few more days passed and still he didn't return. We waited, Jane and I, and days turned into weeks and weeks into months, until we finally agreed, inwardly and without words, by the mere look of our eyes, that Tarzan would not be coming back.
    And when that was the case… well, one day Jane scratched my head again, and as she was doing so I heard that word, one of the few words I was certain of: Goodbye .
    I gently held her arm and tried to make her stay, as much as I could without being violent and mean, but she was decided, and eventually I watched her disappear through the jungle. I wondered if she would survive.

    I continued to live in Tarzan's hut in the trees. I had been shown a different life with Tarzan and could not see myself returning to the other chimpanzees. I had changed.
    I also missed Tarzan. Living in the hut was a way to never forget him.
    How long did I live alone like that? I don't know. A very long time. My fur began to change from shiny black to gray and brittle. The jungle looked the same as it always did, but I changed.

    One day I was sleeping in the hut, sleeping as I so often did, sleeping, when I heard something on the steps coming up the tree. Instantly I was alert, and grabbed the knife Tarzan had left. I didn't look down the hatch but instead waited at the top so that when the creature climbed up I would have the advantage of surprise. I don't know what I thought it would be. Perhaps another