Unknown - The ape girl

She twisted her head around and shaded her eyes. She peered high up into the tree tops. And there, perched against the branch of a tree and hanging onto a thick vine sat a huge, fat black hairy gorilla.

Blair blinked in disbelief, afraid to move. The animals were so shy of humans. They would never get even this close unless they were very curious. Very curious indeed, to risk even the slightest hint of danger to themselves.

Well, it had gone this far. What the hell, Blair figured. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called up to the fierce-looking hairy beast whose body stuck out in such contrast to the green and soft brown around him.

"How much did you see!" she hollered, smiling as her echo resounded.

A loud, chattering noise greeted her back. The gorilla was screaming at her. Screaming in a loud, raucous voice that could only have meant one thing.

He was laughing at her. Laughing at her in shrill, full, peals of chattering, tongue-clucking of laughter that sounded and re-sounded throughout the thick, dense jungle forest.

Blair strolled along the jungle path, kicking at the big broad green leaves that stuck out in the path. She found herself face to face, after a few minutes of trotting along the thickly-matted jungle floor, with the net trap her father and his assistants had set down.

It was a strange structure, indeed. And, though necessary, a bit sad. At least it made her sad to think that some beast was going to be caged in there for a while.

A beast she had nothing but good feelings about. A huge, hairy ape beast. She wondered how she would like it if her father put her in a cage.

But this wasn't a dark, dank, metal cage. Any animal enclosed in this thing could clearly see out of it, and he could breathe all the air he wanted to, since the thing was made of non-destructible mesh.

Then, too, they meant no harm to the creature, whoever it would be. They weren't intending to haul him off to be stuffed or even to be caged in a public zoo.

That was why they had come here. To study the creature first in his natural habitat, and then, up close, close enough to look eyeball to eyeball at.

The thought of it made Blair very excited and curious. She had seen all sorts of monkeys and apes close up, but never the giant gorilla.

He was considered too fierce and wild to get close to. And they would be eating with him. Sitting right down there and having dinner with him whenever his meals were.

And they would sleep right there with him, too. To better and more completely study his habits.

"You might say we're going to ape the ape," Dr. Fortner said, teasingly.

"Everything he does, we'll be doing, too," Blair replied to her father, as she sat on the ground and braided her hair.

They were both greatly excited about the experiment. It had begun to take on an edge of curiosity that even the normally blase assistants had picked up.

Blair watched as two of them completed arrangements for the trap. The final touch was to surround it with palm leaves and twigs to camouflage it.

Then, they set the fruit inside. Mangoes and bananas and a scattering of nuts. Appetizing for the tastes of the biggest gorilla.

The rest was pretty much waiting. That part always made Blair a little nervous. She looked around the camp to see what needed to be put in order. She kept busy for an hour or two unpacking supplies, and cleaning the place up a bit.

"Don't want to be caught with a messy house when the Big Boy gets here," she thought.

She sat down in the sun to soak up the delicious rays for a few minutes. She tilted her face toward the sky and slowly began to relax into a nap.

She was awakened by the harsh sounds of the black assistants shouting to her father.

"Nomma. Nomma gejitti. Jukko, jukko."

They were jumping up and down and pointing toward the cage.

Sure enough, they had a visitor. A big, hairy gorilla. And he didn't seem to like being caged up.

He was beating his thick, hairy fists against the cage entrapment and jumping up and down, stomping his thick, hairy feet on the floor of the cage.

"Kildi, tuma poowrey."

The tallest of the black native assistants ran toward her father's tent and gesticulated wildly toward the cage.

Blair's understanding of the native tongue wasn't broad, but she did pick up some key words. 'Juko' she knew, meant gorilla.

"Dad," she called to her father, "we have a guest."

Her father came racing out of the tent, zipping up his pants. It was his habit to take a brief nap in the afternoon, and that gorilla had caught him during it.

"Good heavens," he shouted as he headed toward the cage trap.

"We got a live one," Blair said, smiling and grabbing her notebook. She didn't want to miss the chance to record her first impressions of the huge creature.

But try as she might to pick up her pen and write with it, she couldn't once she had stared into the face of that beast.

His brow was black and furrowed and his dark eyes pierced her to the core. He seemed incredibly angry, stomping and roaring and beating his chest mightily. The animal was as angry as a charging bull. He snorted and the steam fairly flew out of his nostrils.

She looked at him as he opened his mouth. The unexpected pink inside of it startled her. He was so big and black all over, except for that lurid pink mouth. And those white teeth. And of course, the whites of his eye.

They were nearly red now, he was so bursting with anger at being caught in there.

He bellowed a loud call of pain and injustice up to the top of the trees.

He leaned over and flailed at the bottom of his cage with his fists.

"He's acting like a spoiled child," Dr. Fortner said, "but I guess nobody likes to be locked up without their permission first."

"No," Blair said pensively.

How had it happened that she had become so intrigued with this animal. His body warmed her. His face, rather than turning her off, made her completely happy.

It was such a twisted, horrifying face. But those eyes. Those incredibly deep-set black sunflowers. They darted around from left to right and up and down.

The animal had stopped hitting and lashing out now. He was painstakingly searching for an exit. He explored every inch of the cage trap with his fingers, his toes, his eyes. Then, once he had discovered that there was no escape from the place, he sat down and beat the floor with his fists as he let out low, guttural rumblings from his throat.

"Juko, hi hi chamaky, loi."

The natives were observing his change of mood. Apparently he would go through this for the next several hours, until he exhausted himself. Then, he would probably lie down and sleep a bit or just turn and watch his captors for a while.

"He seems so human," Blair said, as he eyed the watchers around him. His eyes explored every inch of them, taking in the whole spectacle.

"Wonder what he's thinking," Dr. Fortner said, "or if he's thinking anything at all, except how to get out of here."

Another hour passed. The gorilla repeated his experiments with finding an escape hatch. He tried brute strength, failing this. He clawed the indestructible mesh, he bit it, he lashed at it with his toes. Nothing.

He sat down and began to pout.

"Now he's trying to make us feel guilty," Dr. Fortner said to his daughter.

"I'm afraid I do," she said quietly.

"Don't be, dear," her father said, tapping her on the shoulder, "He's just going to have a vacation in a rooming house for a while. An unexpected one, but remember, all his wants and needs are being taken care of."

Blair thought about that a moment. All his wants and needs were not being taken care of. Where was a little female for him to romance while he was locked up like that?