Marty the Monkey

            by Jake Shandling

 

            Marty Monkey was a young monkey who lived in the forest with all of his family and other animal friends. Marty Monkey loved to munch on bananas, maybe even a little too much. Marty also liked to daydream about big, yummy, crunchy bananas.

 

 

            When banana season came in the forest, all the monkeys loved to run up the trees and grab as many of the new bananas as they could. They just loved the crunchy fruit that came every year, and there were always enough to go around.

            Just before banana season one year, an old, wise Monkey, named Michael Monkey, came slowly swinging through the trees on his way to the other side of the forest, and stopped to spend the night right where Marty Monkey and his friends and family lived.

            “Hello traveler,” greeted Marty’s parents, Mary and Michael Monkey. “Welcome to our part of the forest.”

            “Why hello,” said Michael. “I hope you don’t mind if I spend the night. I have been traveling all day and need a place to rest.”

            “Here, you can sleep in this extra hammock in the banana trees,” said Mary monkey, showing Michael the way to his hammock.

            The next morning, Marty Monkey was swinging around in the banana trees picking the fruit when he accidentally swung into Michael Monkey’s hammock. The flustered Marcus sat up and looked around.

            “Woops, sorry Mister,” said Marty.

            “Well that’s okay little one,” said the old monkey. “What’s your name lad?” he asked.

            “I’m Marty,” the young monkey answered. “I was just picking bananas.”

            “Ah, I remember my days of swinging through the trees and picking bananas. It’s too bad I don’t have the energy for that anymore,” he lamented. Then after glancing at Marty’s hands, which were chalk full of bananas, he seemed to remember something. “You know, now that I think back, a friend once told me that you could make bananas even tastier and juicier by turning them yellow, but I can’t seem to remember how.”

            “Wow!” exclaimed Marty Monkey. Now he was really interested. Even better bananas? Marty just had to figure out how to turn his green bananas yellow. “Thanks mister,” said Marty as he leapt away from the banana trees to try and figure out how to make his bananas yellow.

            The first thing Marty tried was snake venom. He went down to the forest floor to find his friend Sebastian the Snake, who was a really peaceful snake, but had lots of poisonous pricklies on his back.

            “Hey, Sebastian,” said Marty when he finally found his friend. “Can I use your poisonous pricklies to do an experiment?”

            “Sure thing Marty,” said Sebastian. So Marty took out one of his bananas, flipped Sebastian upside down, and poked his banana with a poisonous prickly. He waited and waited, but the banana just shriveled and turned and ugly orange-ish-brown-ish-purple-ish.

 

            Next, Marty tried painting his bananas. He went off to find his friend Henry the Hummingbird. “Hi Henry,” said Marty when he finally found him zipping along.

            “Hey hey hey Marty? How’s it going? How are you? The parents, are they ok? What’s Happening?!?!?” Henry chattered in his high and speedy hummingbird voice.

            “Do you know where I could find some yellow flowers to make dye out of?” asked Henry.

            “Why suuuure!” yipped Henry. “Just follow me and I’ll lead you right to ‘em!”

            And Henry buzzed off into the forest, with Marty swinging through the trees right behind him. They traveled on and on, and Marty was starting to get tired, when finally they broke out of the forest and into a huge meadow of yellow wildflowers!

            “Wow!” exclaimed Marty when he saw the beautiful meadow. “Thanks a lot, Henry!”

            “You are very very very welcome M-M-M-Marty!” said Henry, and he flew off in a hurry.

            So Marty collected a whole bunch of wildflowers, and mashed them up to make a golden dye. Then he soaked a banana in it for a two days, two hours and twenty minutes. After waiting for so long, Marty was really anxious to eat his juicy, sweet bananas.

            “Wow,” said Marty as he pulled his banana out from the bowl of die he had used. “It’s yellow now!” but as he peeled the skin back and took a bite, Marty found that it was still hard and crunchy. “Oh well,” Marty said, now thinking up another way to make his bananas yellow, soft, juicy and sweet.

            “Hmmm,” thought Marty. “Maybe if I smash them so they are soft, they will turn juicy and sweet also!” With his new idea Marty started to run back towards the forest. He took out some of his bananas, threw them onto the ground and smashed and smashed them until his feet burned and his legs could do no more.

            He picked up the mush that he had made and took a taste. “It sure is soft,” thought Marty, “But not sweet and juicy.” Marty was sad, and decided to give up on his quest to make his bananas juicy, sweet, and yellow. He headed home.

            When Marty finally got back to his neck of the woods, he climbed up his tree and lay down on his hammock. But just as he was about to fall asleep in disappointment, Michael Monkey, who had stayed a few days longer, came leaping through the trees. Even this old monkey couldn’t contain his excitement!

            “Marty! Marty! I remembered how to do it!” Michael cried as he swung up to Marty’s hammock.

            “Really? How do you do make bananas yellow, juicy, and sweet?!” Marty asked in happiness.

            “Just follow me!” Michael yelled over his shoulder as he began to climb up to the canopy.

            Up and up they went with the younger Marty on the tail of the older Michael, who wasn’t quite so quick. And as they got to the very top of the very largest banana tree in the surrounding forest, Marty leapt with joy! For a whole bunch of bananas was rich, golden yellow! And when he poked one, it was oh so soft! And when he ate one, how sweet! How juicy!

            “How did you do this?” Marty asked Michael as he bit into a wonderful and deliciously sweet banana.

            “I did nothing my young friend! You see, all we had to do was leave it to nature, and with enough time, the bananas become ripe and juicy all by themselves!”

            “Wow, so you mean all I had to do was wait to eat the bananas instead of picking them when they were small and green?” asked Marty, now beginning to understand what he had needed all along.

            “That’s exactly right!” Michael replied.

            And with that, Marty the Monkey, young child of the forest, learned his lesson in patience. To get what he wanted, all Marty really had to do was wait!

            “Thanks so much,” Marty said to Michael. And together they plucked a few ripe bananas, and swung off into the forest.