The Monkey

There once were five brothers. They used to live together in a small house in a village
next to a forest. Their names were Tom, John, William, Alex and Steve. Their mother
always told them not to trouble anybody or to try doing something mischievous as
they would always sneakily exit the house and used to trouble their neighbours. They
had a friend named Bryan who regularly played with them and was equally
mischievous. Whenever they troubled anyone, Bryan just used to add fuel to the fire.

And one day, they decided to cross the fence made on the border of their village!
This was a crazy decision because behind “The Fence” there was a dark, dense and
gloomy forest. They had heard many tales about the man eating monkey living in that
forest, who only breathed fire, ate people and did nothing else. It was about 11 feet
tall and was strong enough to survive gun bullets! There were rumours about the
monkey that it slayed all the soldiers of the American army troops when they were
crossing the gloomy forest, the tale of the three friends of the monkey, Master Ox,
Master Croc and King Kong-the gorilla. Few people used to say that archaeologists
had found bones of dead people behind rocks, under the soil and in many other
unusual places too.
So they crossed the fence and made sure to stay silent, because if they made a single
sound then they would be in hot water. While walking towards the interior of the
forest Tom and Bryan were in the front, while the others followed them even though
they all knew that if the monkey got them they all would be in the same boat. The
way towards the interior was extremely dark. They were even feeling excited
because they were about to look at the infamous carnivorous monkey. They were
even scared because they were afraid of losing their way or being gobbled up by the
monkey.

Suddenly, they saw a glass box full of chickens. And just then from out of the blue,
the monkey jumped in front of them. Tom picked the glass box full of chickens, and
threw it to the ground, thinking that he would be creating the mother of all
distractions which was what they used to escape. In the blink of an eye, they were
hiding behind a large rock near a river. They watched the monkey try to stay away
from the spilled water of Steve’s water bottle. Seeing this, William and Alex realised
that the monkey was afraid of water, which helped them come up with an idea to
trick the monkey into falling into the river. The others agreed to it so Steve decided
to give it a shot. As the monkey approached and screamed at Steve, he heard a
beeping sound coming from it and also saw that its eyes were not blinking which
made him understand that the monkey was actually a machine and some creator had
made it for a reason. He also saw a red button on its foot. When he was about to
dodge the monkey’s attack, he pressed the button which made the monkey freeze in
its place.

Everybody came out of their hiding place and gave out a sigh of relief. Then they all
gathered around the monkey and tried to understand what happened to it. Suddenly,
one of the monkey’s batteries fell out. Then Steve told them all what he had seen
when the monkey approached him and how he pressed the button and made the
monkey freeze.

Soon darkness fell, they tried to navigate their way back home using Bryan’s
compass. They crossed the fence again and successfully reached their home.

They found out that although it was very late in the night, their parents were wide
awake and were very worried about them. They also saw Bryan’s parents there.

They entered their house and hugged their parents and narrated the whole story to
them. Their parents felt proud of them but told them not to ever leave the house
again without informing them. The kids looked at each other and winked with a
mischievous smile on their face.

Key for idioms (in bold if you try to find them in the
story)
Add fuel to the fire-To add more to an existing problems
Be in hot water-Be in trouble
Be in the same boat-Be in the same situation
From out of the blue-With no warning
In the blink of an eye-Very quickly
Give it a shot-To try to do something
Thanks for reading!

Atharva Srivastava 4c