Dangles the Monkey’s Trip to the Moon

By Danielle Chan

It was night when the toys came out to play - at night when Little Timmy slept soundly in his bed dreaming his young hopes and joys. When Dangles the Monkey, was free to roam around the room. He was Little Timmy’s favorite toy, Dangles and Timmy are the best of friends, and have been together since Little Timmy was a baby. They went everywhere together, the park, school, shopping, out to dinner, everywhere. It was unusual to see the two separate of once another. Every night, Little Timmy slept with Dangles safely beneath his arm.  The room was dark at night, and the only light came from the distant moon…

            “It’s made of cheese, you know,” I’d hear from Little Timmy’s Mom and Dad, as I laid snuggly in his arm on the gigantic bed. When Little Timmy fell asleep, I’d always climb up the windowsill just to see the moon at night, the moon and its best cheese. But I’d worry at times, too, of the stories I’d hear about this same exact moon. Stories that leave’s me questioning the cheese’s safety.

            “Mommy, why does the moon have a face?” Little Timmy asked as he pointed his little finger at the dark spots that looked like two eyes and a mouth.

            “Well son -”

            “Because that’s the Boogeyman, and he’s watching you,” Little Timmy’s older brother would say. “He’s waiting for the perfect night to come and take you away to Boogeyland!”

            “No, not the cheesy moon,” I’d mutter to myself as I hugged my long tail. I refused to believe it was true, absolutely refused. The moon was the most incredible thing in the whole entire universe. How could it be Boogeyland?!  I had to get to the bottom of this. I would go to the moon and save it from the terrible Boogey. I, Dangles the Monkey, would set off to fight that evil that lurked over our cheesy moon at night. I hadn’t a clue as to how I was going to get up there, though. The moon was so far away - it had to have been a whole two miles away! I scanned the room in search for something, anything I could use to fly to the moon and save the cheese from the wretched Boogey. A rocket, yes, a rocket would get me there. I was in need of a rocket ship to fly to the moon.

I sat on that windowsill and thought for what seemed like hours upon hours, again letting my eyes scan the room slowly, until finally a thought popped into my head. The toy box! Little Timmy had to have a rocket!

Rummaging through the box, I found nothing that was remotely rocket-like. Frustrated, I began throwing things out of the box onto the floor not realizing that someone else had woken up.

            “What are you doing, Dangles?” Yawned, Slumbers the Bear, as I continued to throw things still searching for a rocket.

            “I’m going to the moon,” I said, “but I don’t have anything to get me there.”

 I pouted slightly, sitting down finally. I hadn’t the slightest clue as to how I was going to get something to fly me to the moon, but I was hopeful that perhaps Slumbers knew what to do. 

Slumbers looked at me, with a confused expression on his face.

“The moon,” He asked, “Why the moon?”

Only I got it, Slumbers never sat and paid attention to the moon like I did.

“I have to save the moon.” I said.

“Save the moon?” Slumbers questioned.

I nodded, “The moon is being taken over by the Boogeyman, I have to save it!”

Slumbers once again gave me that confused expression, a look in which questioned my motives. But I didn’t need to explain again, I did enough of that. Slumbers was just going to have to understand that.

Now, Slumbers wasn’t all that wrong. Slumbers knew that Little Timmy’s brother’s story was all a lie. A lie meant only to scare Little Timmy, not to be taken seriously. This all led to the question of how naive Dangles really was.

I gave up that night, as my eyes grew heavy. I would continue my search again perhaps tomorrow. There were many more places to search, but they would just have to wait. I climbed onto the bed and tucked myself beneath Little Timmy’s arm, thinking of how wonderful the moon must’ve been without the boogeyman. With a smile, my eyes closed.

A moment later, I was awoken by a nudge and a gentle whisper, “Dangles, look what I found.”

My eyes opened slowly, to adjust to the bright moon light. Slumbers stood before me, with an anxious expression on his face. I didn’t know what he found, but it had to have been good.

“I found a rocket!” Slumbers shouted excitedly, as he pointed his paw in the direction of the rocket ship that had to have been as tall as Little Timmy’s bed! I was in shock, how could I have missed that? Slumbers and I approached the rocket, I couldn’t help but be astonished as well as ecstatic that he had found it.

            “Come with me, Slumbers.” I approached the rocket, opened the door and stepped on through. Slumbers slowly followed, and inside were the space suits. We quickly dressed before take off. We strapped ourselves in, and pressed the big red button which started the rocket.

            “Three…two…one…BLAST OFF!!!”

            The rocket soared through the roof and soon we were soaring above the houses and into the stars. Moon, here we come! The twinkle of the stars matched the twinkle in Slumbers’ eyes.

            “The stars are prettier up close, than from the window,” Slumbers said, just as the moon was approaching, by now the trip had felt like it had lasted three days. As we approached the moon seemed empty, except for empty and cheese-filled craters. We hoped off of the rocket and walked along the moon for a little occasionally running to the cheese to marvel. Final we came across a crater that seemed to be moving. When suddenly there was a loud roar. ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Then a gigantic creature jumped out of the crater.

            “What are you doing on my Moon?” The creature’s voice boomed loudly, so loudly we almost fell backwards. But I stood strong, because I refused to show fear!

            “This is not your moon, Boogeyman!” Slumbers shouted loudly, pointing his paw at the slimy green creature. The Boogeyman laughed, but we stood strong. Fed up with his laughter I charged toward him, pushing him off of his feet. The Boogeyman whimpered a bit, which made me stand up.            

            “Please,” Whimpered the Boogeyman, “don’t hurt me.” His expression seemed truly hurt.

            “Will you leave the moon alone?” Slumbers asked. We watched as the Boogeyman nodded, with a sad expression.

            “I didn’t mean to take it over.” He said, “I just wanted some cheese, but I got greedy and decided not to share it.”

            “If we promise to let you go, will you share?” I asked, my arms folded across my chest. The Boogeyman nodded, and promised he would go home, share the cheese and not scare anyone anymore. It was getting late, we had to get back so we bid the Boogeyman farewell before hopping back into the rocket. The rocket flew back through the stars, until the rocket seemed to be moving backwards.

            “What’s going on, Dangles?” Slumbers asked. I shrugged, saying that I didn’t know. I looked at the screens in the rocket, and it showed the rocket was being sucked into a black hole! Slumbers and I cried, we didn’t want to go into the black hole, we wanted nothing more than to be back home with Little Timmy. I threw a tantrum and cried, until I felt someone hugging me tightly.

            It was Morning and I was safe in Little Timmy’s arms. Slumbers was still in his spot by the toy chest. Was that all a dream? Or did it actually happen? Whatever it was, I was happy now. Slumbers and I were home safe and that was all that mattered.

The End.