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4
Tentatively, I inched my way closer to the front door that now lay broken
on the ground. I looked around for a weapon of some sort and found a large piece of wood. Then I went inside. It
wasn't pretty. CoCo had already eaten most of my rotund boss's torso and was now munching on his arm. It was all
I could do not to lose it, but I knew I had to retain a semblance of control if CoCo was going to be tamed.
That, unfortunately, wasn't going to be an option. As soon as I walked in, he looked up at me and I could sense,
immediately, that I was going to be dessert. And, yes, CoCo's eyes were indeed glowing yellow, as I'd been warned.
I guessed that the radiation had something to do with it.
"Fucking experimental treatments," I said. CoCo looked at me and gave, what I assumed, was a laugh. Neither
my piece of wood nor myself was going to be any sort of match for this radiated monkey. But that's when I had a
new thought on how to handle the beast. If he was hungry, I was gonna feed him. I figured if a way to a man's heart
is through his stomach, a baboon could be similarly reached.
I ran first to the horse trainer's trailer. Thankfully, he had what I needed, as we had no guns at the circus and
a tranquilizer dart might piss CoCo off even more. Next, I ran to the food storage unit. I knew there'd be plenty
of what I needed there as well. And then I sped back to Mr. Cobb's trailer. CoCo was now munching contently on
a leg. He growled when I reentered, but otherwise stayed in place.
Slowly, I handed him a banana. He looked from the leg to the fruit and decided that a banana was even better. He
grunted and grabbed it from my hand. He downed it in about a second. Luckily, I had more. Much more. And ten minutes
later, he'd eaten my whole stash, which was easily sixty bananas; sixty bananas each with a horse tranquilizer
pill embedded inside. I wasn't taking any chances.
CoCo's yellow eyes started going woozy soon after his feast, and a minute later, he was unconscious. Now, normally,
sixty tranquilizers would kill any monkey. But nothing was normal about that day, and certainly nothing was normal
about CoCo. In any case, he was soon to be out of my hands. Animal Control had followed his trail right to Mr.
Cobb's door and they handled things from there.
It took four men to lift him into their van. And each twitch of his hand sent my nerves to rattling. Luckily, he
stayed asleep the whole time. What would it take to kill him, I thought, if sixty tranquilizers merely knocked
him out? Still, I was glad he was on his way out of the circus and my life.
My happiness, unfortunately, was short-lived. News broke a few hours later that a rampaging baboon was destroying
the greater downtown area, and eating everything in its wake. Someone tried to coax him into a police van with
a bunch of bananas. That someone was promptly eaten. CoCo was nothing if not a quick learner.
Soon thereafter, I packed my bags and hopped the first train I could find. I too am a quick learner; and I knew
that, sooner or later, CoCo was gonna come back home. He wasn't going to find me there. And as for simian radiation
therapy, I prayed they hadn't come up with a pachyderm version as well. Then, God help us all.
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