I woke up to a bright sun streaming in through the tops of the trees and Tuni’s tail in my face. I fell asleep above the house again. I seem to have been doing that a lot lately. Tuni was asleep on a limb above my head, her tail now circling my face. A loud sound came from my stomach.
“Come on Tuni, let’s go get something to eat.” I said, getting up and stretching. She opened one lazy eye at me then closed it again.
“Oh, you lazy bones,” I gently pulled her tail. “Get up! There is a monster that needs to be fed!” Now she opened both eyes at me, slowly lifted her rump and extended her front paws in a long stretch.
“Good girl.” I said softly, rubbing her ears while she purred. “Come on, we don’t want to miss breakfast!” I ran to the end of the branch and jumped off. I spread my arms out like a bird. No, I couldn’t fly, but this was as close as I’d come to it. The wind rushed through my hair and the sun warmed my face. I opened my eyes again and grabbed the closest vine and swung towards the house in the tree. Tuni followed me by jumping from limb to limb in the trees.
“I’m here!” I announced as I landed in the house, Tuni coming in behind me and already making her way to Jane, who stood at the table.
“Hello darling, did you sleep well?” Jane asked me as she got me a plate and put some food on it.
“Oh I guess,” I said, twirling a strand of hair between my fingers. “I fell asleep in a tree again.”
Jane came over and gave me my plate, which I took thankfully. She sighed. We talked about this a lot, because instead of sleeping in my house I fell asleep in a tree instead. I don’t mean to do it; the house is just so lonely and dark. I go outside and look up at the stars and think about what life among the people must be like.
“Keyta, you know how dangerous it is to be outside at night. There are snakes and insects and large cats…” I glanced at Tuni, who was eating a small animal. She looked over when she heard cats.
Jane gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry Tuni. But that’s not the point the point is I promised your father -.”
“You promised my father that would look after me and make sure I never got hurt. Yes Jane, I know. I was there. But the house is just so dark at night, and it’s kinda of creepy. But the stars look so friendly that I can’t not go out and see them. I try to go back to sleep, but I cant. I don’t mean to fall asleep in the trees, but I have the nicest dreams when I look at the stars. I dream about people Jane, I dream about what they do, where they live, how many trees they have climbed, how fast they run, how they talk. I just,” I paused. This was really personal, but I know what Jane is going to say. But I say it anyways. “I just want to live with the people.”
Jane got up from the table and did the dishes. “Life is so much different where the people live. They live in houses as tall as these trees, and they ride in motorcars to get places.” I wasn’t expecting her to say that. I asked her many questions, and she answered them all. Pictures came into my head of houses as tall as trees, and how the people drive in a thing called a motorcar to get places. How they keep animals on ropes and how they don’t sleep in trees. It was all so amazing.
Tuni had fallen asleep while Jane was telling me everything about the people.
“Oh Jane, when can I go see the people?”
She sighed and got up. “Oh, well. That was a nice chat. I better go pick some berries.”
What? I don’t think so! I ran after Jane who was using the ‘elevator’ to get down from the tree. “Jane wait! When can I see them? Jane! Why don’t you ever answer that question?” I followed her in the vines, yelling down to her. She kept ignoring me. “Jane!”
