Adventure of the Planet of the Apes
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing of the Planet of the Apes. My respect for the wonderful author, Pierre Boulle, the book was so awesome that I keep reading it over and over again. So only a few people in here are mine. I don't own any Tolkien quotes either.
A/N: I am so happy with all the response I have been getting. Sorry that the last chapter took so long to update, but with finals and all… Well, this time I have no idea what is going to happen so we will have to just wait and find out.
Goopy Goo- I am glad that you like my story and I realize that I need a beta or such. With other people's work I can find tons of mistakes and stuff like that, but my own… that is a different story. Sorry about that. Thank you for giving me a positive, but also a very helpful review.
JoMarch95- Yeah you liked it. Me and my dad are pretty close too, but at least I still have a mom around the house otherwise we would kill each other sometimes.
Enya- Nope, I haven't abandoned it yet. Right now I am really busy with acting class. Fun fun fun- or not. But I am trying to be regular in my updates. Just hang in and we will get this story finished… someday.
Chapter Six: Figuring It All Out
Bon chatted away merrily glad to finally have someone to talk with besides her brother. I mean, she loves him very much, but there are some things that guys can just not understand about girls. Because basically most men are emotionally void, and sometimes you just have to pour out your heart to a girl, but Bon had never had a girl to talk to before. I smiled as she talked about how good it was to live with "Mistress Ari" because she was so nice. Yeah, if she were nice she wouldn't have slaves. But I am, of course, a little prejudice. We were laughing at something that I had said, a normal American thing, but then again this was not America we were living in, and it had struck Bon as the funniest thing she had ever heard. All of the sudden the door swung open and Ari walked in. Immediately Bon stopped talking and laughing and stood up. Quickly I followed her actions, and tried to have a subservient attitude.
"Is there anything you would like, mistress Ari?" A look of annoyance quickly passed over the she-apes face before she could wipe it away. When Ari looked in my direction I gave an almost imperceptible nod to acknowledge her.
"No, I do not require anything… except." Both Bon and I paused wondering what request would be made of us. I was going to truly try to be good and do everything with a positive manner. "-except for you to stop addressing me as 'mistress Ari' when no one else is around."
"Yes, mis- I mean, Ari." I had been staying pretty quiet just waiting and watching. It was interesting to see how Bon interacted with Ari in certain situations. Stop it, Taylor, you aren't doing common interest story. You don't have to take notes on everything. Relax.
"It seems like you two are getting along well. Was the food to your liking, Taylor?"
I was fighting the urge to say something around the lines of 'Oh, well, the selection isn't quiet up to par, and the china isn't the best I have ever seen.' But I knew that I would have been in big trouble had I said that. So I settled with a nice, short little answer. "Yes, thank you. La comida esta excellente, gracias." I couldn't help myself. It is just my natural tendency to want to confuse people, so I had to speak Spanish.
"Uh?" Both Bon and Ari were confused by hearing an unknown language spoken. "Is that the same language that you and your friend made up?"
"Sí." A smirk worked its way onto my face, without my permission to do so. In a way I was kind of teasing both of them, especially Ari. The smart part of me said that I should remain silent, but the stupid part said go ahead and do whatever. The apes needed to see that they weren't the only ones who were able to learn and do different things.
Bon's eyes got big, "You can speak a different language?" Now I was certain that she held me in awe, neither Bon nor Ari had never met someone like me. For a moment Ari looked like she felt as naïve as Bon looked.
"Sí, hablan español. ¿Tú?" I gave Bon a smile that hopefully put her at ease. No offense to her, but it wasn't hard to impress her. If you have barely ever been out of the house, can't read, and have never had a person to interact except your brother, you can't be anything but naïve. But to Ari I gave a kind of condescending smile that I would give to child who could not understand, but pretends to. Immediately after words I felt sorry. It was not my intent to make her mad or feel bad, yet I could not stop myself, so I apologized. "Sorry, I know that I am provoking you. Really, I don't mean to do it, but it comes so naturally when I can understand and you can't.
"In one way I can understand what you mean. Come, sit. You don't have to stand." After a moments hesitation I pulled up and chair and sat down, but Bon was a little bit shyer. It took her a couple seconds to finally make her upper mind when I positioned a chair next to me and motioned for her to sit down.
"For crying out loud in St. Petersburg, sit down." Again I motioned for her to sit.
"You are very different."
"Thank you." It sounded good to hear that again. For the most part people told me that everyday and I hadn't heard it yet before I had suddenly 'dropped' in on Ari, literally.
"Why would you say that? I didn't compliment you, you know."
"Yes, but it has been at least two days since anyone has told me that, so it was good to hear it again."
Now she has not realize that I am not 'usual.' "So, Taylor, tell me a bit about yourself."
"I'm younger than you think I am. I have two older sisters, two brother-in-laws, two nephews, two nieces, a mom and dad, grandparents and lots of friends. Just like quote un quote normal person would have. What about you?"
The question obviously took Ari by surprise. Then it dawned on me that a human of this world would never presume to ask an ape a personal question. I cringed and hoped that I had not infringed upon a taboo. Ari didn't seem to mind, actually she seemed quiet pleased. "Um, well, I have two older brothers and one is now married. Huh, I live here with my father and my hum-, well, now you. My best friend is Thade and uh… not much else. Do you have a best friend?"
"I use to, but that was a couple years ago. Things just happened that were meant to happen. It ended out good in the end, though I'm still not very fond of her. How could I expect to be when she broke my trust in her and took part of me away?" Painful memories pushed themselves forward. Moister filled my eyes, but I quickly blinked it away. This was not a time to be showing weakness, but I had truly loved Christine.
"You truly loved her didn't you?" Emotion was thick in Ari's voice. Somehow I think it was then that she connected with me. It was a realization that I wasn't just some stupid human without a brain. I don't know what it was… but there was something. "But the sacred scrolls say that humans are incapable of love, or even the simplest emotion." Obviously training over rules common sense.
"If you don't mind me saying –I'm not trying to insult you or anyone else- but I don't think those sacred scrolls know a damn thing about humans. Believe me, I don't swear very often, only when I need to make a point."
"You're not from around here."
"Didn't we already go over this? Hitler –I mean- Thade, already put me through the inquisition and back again. No, I'm not from around here. Stupid soup Nazi's." Really, Thade is very much like a Hitler, he wants to kill everyone who is not an ape. I cannot help but wonder if he will reach the six million death mark like Hitler did with the Jews. This makes me nervous to think about, since I am now one of those who could suffer from his persecution.
"Soup Nazi's?"
"Never mind. I'm obsessed with history. Particularly the American Civil War and World War II, but none of that matters or exist now," I ended sadly. All that schooling was good for nothing but a future of misery working for 'damn dirty apes.'
"How would a human know all that? You must come from a long distance from here since no one has ever spoken of such things before. This is all very interesting. I would like to know more."
"If you think you could learn from a lowly human." I sarcastically replied when she almost started laughing at the thought of learning from a human. There were some things I could just not handle.
The shocked looked on Ari's face gave me a feeling of pride. It seemed that Ari wasn't to pleased with my answer. "Well, I have things to do so I will leave you two to clean up. Once you are done, Taylor, you may return to my chambers or stay here with Bon for a while before bed."
"Thank you, ma'am."
The ape ignored my last comment as discussed with Bon about what was to be for dinner. Then the door opened again, this time was Thade. I gave him my best 'back off buddy' look I could without being to blatant. "Ari, your father would like to speak with you- with us, together." A slight jerk was all the emotion that Ari showed. Probably did something she wasn't suppose to. Didn't she say something about finding me outside the city? Is she even allowed to go outside? "Don't worry, it's nothing bad." I was left to muse over my thoughts as Thade lead Ari away.
Well, Ari had told me I could either go back up to her room or stay with Bon. At the moment Bon was busy fixing the dinner Ari had requested, so I assumed that I would get no more information out of her at the present time so I decided to take my chances upstairs. Slowly I made my way back up to Ari's room. It took me a little while because I had become dizzy from the bump on my head. Finally I reached her room. I carefully staggered, it is actually possible to stagger carefully? Oh well, but I made my way over to my makeshift bed and sat down. How could walking up a flight of stairs make a person so tired? I knew the answer was because I had a concussion and they make people tired. The doctor had told Ari to let me sleep for the next couple days so I decided to take his advice and catch some z's.
When I woke up again the room was getting dark and a few candles where lit. Naturally I was curious to know about what was going on downstairs since I could hear voices merrily talking amongst themselves, but it was too much of an effort to walk all the way downstairs. But there were plenty of things to occupy my mind in Ari's room. I noticed that my backpack was laying on the floor at the foot of my bed, yet I could not understand how it had gotten there. That morning when I had gone to the playground with Hannah and Sarah I hadn't taken my backpack with me. Why was it here?
Quickly I opened the main compartment and I found a couple different changes of clothes, nothing major. I dug deeper because I could feel something lumpy at the bottom and I wondered what it was. Teddy! My mom's parents had given him to me for my first Christmas and ever since then I had never spent a night without my faithful Teddy. Everything was going to be all right now, not just because I had my Teddy, but something else, something deeper told me this. I continued my search through my bag and found: a cd player, Cd's, a book, my mouth guard, toothbrush, hairbrush, and a few other toiletry items I might need. Weird.
I walked around the room and took in all the details I could manage for one night then I brushed my teeth. It is a difficult thing to brush one's teeth when you don't have water and have to swallow the toothpaste. Ick! But I did manage to do just that and it made me feel a lot better. I decided that I had better not make a habit of using too much toothpaste because, I reasoned, that the apes wouldn't be to keen on giving (if they had any) to a human. Then I started to change into my favorite pair of pajama's, but thought better of it. How many humans slept in different clothes or had a change of clothes? So I packed all my stuff away (even dear 'ol Teddy) and curled up to sleep. But then…
A/N: Hahahahahaha! I have left you with a cliff hanger once again. Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story and to those who are silent readers. I hope that you will continue to enjoy my story.
