Fozzy and the fake

Fozzy and the fake


Not long ago, in an animal sanctuary and observatory not too far away, there was a young and adorable orangutan named fozzy. He was young and curious, and sometimes he was just plain silly. He was a favorite at the sanctuary for many reasons. Not only was he cute and would give hugs, but he could also communicate to a degree with sign language. It would only work now and then; some times he would say things like “bath time blue cat,” or other things that made no sense whatsoever. But other times it was as if he could really communicate to his handlers, he could tell them what he wanted or would ask them to play his favorite games with him. One day, one of the workers brought him a basket full of plastic food toys; Fozzy was ecstatic. He rooted through all of them, scrutinizing each and every one. Every once and a while he would try to feed some of the toys to the people watching him. Then Fozzy came across something that he recognized instantly- a banana. Fozzy turned it over and over in his hands. It did not feel normal to him. He tried to peel it but he could not get his finger nails into the peel. Becoming confused, he let out a shriek of frustration; which caused some giggles from the people watching him. “He doesn’t get that it isn’t real,” said one man. “Look, he is trying to peel it,” said another. Fozzy waddled on his short stubby legs over to his favorite and main handler, holding the banana out for him to take; and as Fozzy hoped –to peel. The man shook his head, “Sorry Foz,” then reverting to sign language he told his monkey friend- which had now climbed up him and was perched on his hip like an infant. “Banana –not- real,” The man signed to him. Fozzy put his hands on his head and shook it while letting out a childish scream. “He still don’t get it,” said someone in the crowd. “A very convincingly confused monkey,” said another man. Fozzy was now trying to bite the banana; though being a hard heavy duty plastic banana, he made a few scratched but no serious inflictions. The little monkey threw the toy onto the ground and went into a rage, screaming and whooping as loud as his little lungs would allow. “Better get that crazy monkey a real banana” said some one to Fozzy’s handler. Like every good handler, the man happened to be equipped with a yellow monkey pacifier right then and there. The man called Fozzy over, after much yelling to get the orangutans attention. Holding the fake banana and the real one next to it the man produced a razor shard knife and proceeded to try and cut them both open. He showed the little ape that one was hollow inside and the other had the soft white banana in it. Fake he said holding up the hard, hollow banana, and made the sign for fake. Fozzy’s handler was not sure he2a under stood what he was telling him, but he relinquished the real banana into the hands that were in the “please” sign. Fozzy devoured the banana with all the enthusiasm of a starved holocaust victim. Later that night as his handler was saying good night to his much loved little monkey friend, Fozzy looked up to him with his round black beady eyes.
“You-no-fake?” Singed Fozzy;
“Me-no-fake,” his handler signed back.
“Fozzy-no-fake?”
“You-no-fake?”
“Banana-fake?”
“Yes-toy-banana-fake”
There was a pause, Fozzy just stood there staring at his handler.
“I-love-no-fake,” Then Fozzy wrapped his arms around his handler’s legs.