Chronicle 39

Maurice found an obsession in love. Not love for himself - that wasn’t possible anymore. What interested him was the romance of others. Wherever there were two people discovering each other and testing their compatibility, Monkey Love wanted to be. It was as if, however, there were two parts of his brain active as he watched a romance. There was one: the awe-struck, heart-melting monkey who cheered as two people’s souls intertwined. And the other: the wrath of scorned love, snapping into a psychotic rage when love goes wrong, fades away, or worse; was misused.

Everywhere Monkey Love went, he was followed by his band of monkeys and apes. They awaited those moments of darkness when Maurice flipped the switch, ready to join him as he struck. Alone, he was just a monkey, able to do as much damage as any other. Together, they were the battering ram shot by cupid’s bow, aimed straight for the heart. 

Maurice sought out the people in Big City who were too shy to make a first move or afraid of the commitment implied in making a move. As he had for a profession, he would take that step for them, bridging the moment that kept potential lovers at an undesired distance from each other.

Sitting on a branch downtown, Maurice saw Rock Boy, a small-time hero on the streets of Big City. He had been at it for a while, and though his name hadn’t changed, he was more of a rock man. His body was absolutely hideous by any objective standards, even as he walked, there were pebbles pouring out of his extremities like he was a landslide. He sat on a bench nearby and Maurice noticed he was meeting someone, as he held with him a pink gift bag. 

Monkey Love kept watch until a pretty girl showed up wearing a bright smile that outshined her pretty blue dress. Though English wasn’t his first language, he knew enough. He listened close, his heart beating faster and eyes glistening as romance filled the air.

“I got this for you, Franny.” Rock Boy gurgled out, handing her the gift.

“You didn’t need to do this, Roger.” she said gratefully. Before reaching in, she tipped it over, dumping out a ton of small rocks for a good thirty seconds, blocking the gift from falling with her hand. When it was safe to grab the gift without cutting her hand up, she pulled out a necklace with half a heart. She looked up to see Rock Boy had the other half around his neck. They put them together and she smiled. “This is really sweet. Thank you.”

Rock Boy stood from the bench and a large rock fell from his leg, rolling onto Franny’s foot. “Oh, sorry.”

“Don’t worry, Roger. You know I don’t mind.”

“Well, I’ll see you around.” he said sadly.

“Yeah, see you.” she did the same.

Maurice deflated a bit seeing this. He thought it may have been too early in the relationship for them to be more intimate. To help Rock Boy out, he started to think of what would bring him and Fanny together. Rock Boy walked down the street and to the outskirts of Big City where he stopped in an old quarry, which seemed to be his home. Monkey Love watched him enter a hut of stone.

With an idea in mind, Monkey Love entered the stone hut boldly, expecting Rock Boy to be sulking after a disappointing meetup with a love interest. Instead, what he saw was a woman kneeling down and Rock Boy doing a handstand against her. They both stood and moved away from each other when they noticed the monkey. The woman spit out a good amount of rocks, not even blinking, just waiting to see what Maurice was doing there.

“What do we do?” Rock Boy asked her.

“You don’t know this monkey?”

“Why would I know a monkey?”

“You’re a pile of rocks.”

“Fair.”

“Hey monkey… Can you give us some privacy buddy?” Rock Boy asked, reaching a hand out to gently shove Monkey Love out of the hut.

Monkey Love shoved away the mound of stones extending to his side. His face was disappointed and slightly angry, some teeth showing. He made some monkey sounds and then jumped up a bit before landing on the back of another monkey as his gang entered the hovel.

“What is this?” Rock Boy asked. Maurice and the monkey he was atop went to move the girl out of harm’s way, as she wasn’t the offender there. Rock Boy misread their intentions and attacked to defend her. “Kelly!” Between the monkeys and her, a stone wall rose and rocks launched off of it at them, pelting them both. “Don’t touch.” he told them.

The woman fled the hut, allowing the monkeys to retaliate without the risk of hurting her. Rock Boy flooded the room with stones, but the larger apes shoveled it out just as fast as he created it. Monkey Love and his mount monkey, Gogo moved through a split ocean of stones towards Rock Boy and Monkey Love slapped his rock face hard.

“What is going on?” Rock Boy shouted, confused.

Monkey Love took hold of the half heart around Rock Boy’s neck and pointed to it. The stone man stopped producing stones and was instantly in the middle of a monkey ring.

“You want my necklace?”

Maurice shook his head.

“Then what?”

Maurice made sounds and commanded a couple monkeys to retrieve Kelly, who was hiding outside. They carried her in like a baby and stood her next to Rock Boy. Maurice motioned to his necklace and then to the girl.

“You want her to wear it?” Rock Boy was more confused.

Maurice put a hand over his face, wishing he could speak English. With both hands, he motioned to the necklace, then to Kelly and made a bewildered face.

“Ohhhhhh.” Rock Boy gurgled, a ton of pebbles rolling from his mouth. “Open it.”

Maurice didn’t see why, but he popped open the half heart and saw a picture on the inside. It was a young boy sitting on grass with his arm around a young girl. He looked up, still lost.

“She’s my sister. My twin. Identical. Not that you can tell anymore…” Rock Boy explained. “That was right before the accident. I don’t see her much anymore. My parents think I’ll hurt her.”

Maurice and the monkeys eased up and backed up to listen.

“Today’s her birthday. I always try to at least see her on her birthday.”

“Oh, Roger.” Kelly lunged to hug Rock Boy, tearing up from his confession. She came away with some small lacerations but she knew that going in.

Maurice put up prayer hands to apologize and bowed out of the hut, followed by all his primate buddies. He was grateful to have been wrong, and looking forward to practicing discernment in the future. Before leaving, he left a stack of bouquets in the entrance for Kelly “From Rock Boy”.