Chapter 22 – Dawn of the Rebel:

Annabelle ran down the path as fast as she could. Her long brown hair whipped behind her, her heart pounding wildly inside her chest with excitement! A fruit that could grant wishes, just like the genies in the exotic Arabian Nights tales that her grandfather liked to tell her at bedtime! She absolutely had to find one and eat it! "And then I can wish to be future leader of the gorillas!" she said to herself as she headed back to the nesting area.

Of course her parents, especially her mother would never allow it! She refused to let her daughter go into the jungle unaccompanied and she would never in a million years let her visit such a dangerous part of the jungle! Annabelle, thoroughly sickened of her mother's mollycoddling and her father's reluctance to challenge it caused a wave of rebellion to surge through her. "I'm not gonna let Mama or Papa stop me!" she said to herself with a fierce determination, "And if I have to trick them then so be it!"

When she arrived back at the nesting area, she saw her father crouching anxiously with her grandmother Kala, his eyes scanning for any sign of her. "Belle, there you are!" he cried as he rushed over to her, "I've been so worried! Where have you been?"

"Been where?" Jane's voice suddenly sounded out from behind him. Father and daughter nervously turned round to see Jane holding a picnic basket with her other hand on her hip. She gave Tarzan a none too impressed look as if to say, 'Don't tell me that you left our daughter alone!'

"Behind the mango trees!" Annabelle put on a merry laugh, "I guess I won the game! Papa and I were just having a game of hide and seek Mama!"

"Yes," Tarzan's head nodded a little too enthusiastically, "I guess I didn't 'seek' hard enough! Well done Belle!" Jane's eyebrow arched into a slant, her face showing that she clearly didn't believe them. But she did not press the matter further and went off to say hello to Kala, Terk and Gobu.

Tarzan shot his daughter a grateful smile. "She cannot be too mad if she covered for me," he thought to himself. Annabelle took her father's hand as they walked with the gorillas down to the river. She was still angry with him but decided to act as if she had forgiven him. That way she could trick him into getting her own way a whole lot easier.

It was a beautiful early afternoon with the sun sparkling on the river's surface so that it looked like a sheet of polished glass. The adults sat and chatted animatedly with each other whilst the children played on the sandy bank in their assorted groups of friends. Annabelle played with her gorilla cousin and best friend Keke. The two of them regarded each other as sisters and were as inseparable as two peas in a pod. As they made sandcastles and sand angels, Annabelle quietly told Keke all about the Unataka fruit and that she was planning to go there tomorrow.

"Will you come with me?" she asked her best friend who was just as excited by the story as she was.

"Hell yeah!" Keke grinned in delight but her face quickly became dejected, "But your mother will NEVER let us go Anna!"

"Oh she will," Annabelle raised an eyebrow mischievously, "I have a plan!" They approached the adults arm in arm, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Tarzan was talking to Gobu about possibly nesting in an unexplored area whilst Terk gave Jane advice on preparing termites for cooking. Jane noticed the two girls coming towards them and smiled in greeting.

"Mama, Papa," Annabelle gave a big, bright smile, "can I go to the beach tomorrow with Keke? I want to show her the rock pools that Grandpa took me to the other day."

"Oh please Dad!" Keke looked to her own father, "Can I take Anna to the beach?"

"I don't see any reason why not. What do you think Terk dear?" Gobu nodded happily as he looked over to his mate for approval.

"Fine by me! It'll be great to get you little rascal out of my hair for the day!" Terk laughed in jest but Jane looked concerned.

"I don't know Anna," she hesitated, "you have to help me with the washing tomorrow and you have your French lesson."

"Oh please Mama!" Annabelle begged, "I can learn French any day and I promise that I will do all the dishes for a week! Please!"

"Well I-"

"Please!"

"Umm-"

"PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE!" the girls both chorused, making their eyes look as wide and doe eyed as they possibly could.

"Come on Jane," Tarzan whispered in her ear, "I'll help you with the washing. Let her have some fun."

"Alright you can go to the beach with Keke," Jane sighed as she reluctantly gave in. The girls whooped and cheered in delight as they danced a 'ring o' roses' style dance but were cut short by Jane adding, "as long as Uncle Tantor takes you."

"Oh Mama!" Annabelle pleaded desperately, "Keke is old enough to look after me! She can take me to the beach!"

"You can go with Uncle Tantor or not at all. Take it or leave it." Jane's tone was firm and Annabelle knew that no amount of pleading would change her mind.

"Fine we'll go with Uncle Tantor," she grumbled and the two of them walked back to the riverbank.

"Now what are we going to do!" Keke demanded, "We are never going to find the Unataka trees whilst being lumbered with Uncle Tantor!" Annabelle pondered for a while and then snapped her fingers as a cunning plan came into her mind!

"I'll sneak Grandpa's map and compass whilst everyone is asleep," she smiled roguishly, "now Uncle Tantor is a real scaredy-cat right? So we just need something to scare the bejeezus out of him when he takes us to the beach so then he will be distracted and we can escape!"

"Leave that to me!" Keke rubbed her hands together in glee, "I know exactly what we need to scare Old Hose Nose!"

Annabelle quietly raised her head from the pillow and could make out in the darkness that the hands on the grandfather clock said it was gone quarter past 2 in the morning. She noticed that her grandfather was sound asleep as well as her parents in their bed beside hers. Ever so carefully she climbed out of bed and walked across to her grandfather's desk, gingerly placing her feet on parts of floorboards that she knew didn't creak. She quietly opened the second drawer and gingerly pulled out the map and compass. Archimedes did not stir and continued to snore peacefully, Annabelle breathing a sigh of relief.

Feeling elated she turned round to walk back to her bed when her mother started to rouse. Quick as a flash she hid under the desk! Her heart was in her mouth as her mother sleepily walked past as she headed out onto the balcony. When she felt that the coast was clear, Annabelle climbed out and dashed on her tiptoes back to bed. As soon as she hid the map and compass under her mattress and dived under the covers, her father started to wake up too. Tarzan had noticed that his wife was missing from their bed and got up, quietly walking across the treehouse as his daughter feigned sleep.

As Annabelle decided that she had indeed got away scot-free and knew that she should get some sleep, but she was incredibly curious as to why her parents were doing up at such an early hour. She slipped out of bed again, silently walked over and stood just inside the entrance to the balcony, her head carefully craning round to see what was happening.

"Hey sweetheart," Tarzan said quietly as he sat down in a rocking chair next to his wife, "what are you doing up so late?"

"Oh I couldn't sleep," Jane sighed, "I'd thought I would go out and watch the moon." There was a pause as Jane got out of her own chair and went to sit on her husband's lap, watching the almost full moon together. "Maybe I should go to the beach tomorrow," Jane added as she leaned back, Tarzan wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind. "Just to check on Anna at some point."

"Jane darling," Tarzan spoke softly into her ear, "you need to stop worrying. She'll be fine."

"I know. I can't just help it Tarzan."

"I know. It's only because you love her so much," Tarzan replied as he gently stroked her cheek with his hand. Jane turned her head so that she could kiss him, their bodies almost silver in the pale moonlight. Annabelle couldn't help being touched as she witnessed the tender and romantic moment between her parents despite her current feelings of resentment towards them.

"Any sign?" Tarzan asked quietly when their lips parted, their foreheads resting against each other.

"No, my course came this evening," Jane shook her head, her voice filled with a deep sadness and her husband hugged her in consolidation. "There is a town 600 miles down the coast," she continued, "there might be a doctor there. Maybe we should go there and see if they can find out what is wrong?"

"We just have to be patient Jane and keep trying."

"We have been trying for 8 years my love and nothing has happened. Maybe there is something wrong with me…maybe I'm barren."

"We don't know that for sure, maybe there is something wrong with me," Tarzan tried to soothe his wife as she looked down pitifully at her flat stomach.

"I'm getting old Tarzan, maybe my time for having for children is up."

"You are only 34 Jane. Your father told me that women can have children even in their late forties. We have plenty of time left."

"I have failed sweetheart," Jane replied as tears welled in her eyes, "my one duty as a woman is to have children with you and I have failed miserably!"

"Hey!" Tarzan took his wife's face in his hands, "You have not failed me Jane! You have given me a wonderful daughter that I love with all my heart! Jane, I love you with every fibre of my body! I wouldn't love you any less if we were to have 10 children, 1 child or none at all, you know that!"

"I know, I, I just wish we could give Anna a brother or sister. I don't want her to be on her own when we… go."

"She won't be on her own, she will be with the gorillas. They are her family just as much as she is ours."

"I know, but I still want her to have a human sibling. I want another child Tarzan, I want another baby in my arms. I would do anything, anything to have another child."

"I know," Tarzan nodded, holding her tight as she silently wept into his chest, "me too."

Annabelle quietly walked back to her bed and pulled the covers up around her. All her anger towards her parents disappeared in an instant. She had no idea that her parents were so desperately upset that they did not have another child. Annabelle had always wondered why she did not have a brother or sister to play with like most of the other gorilla children did.

When she was seven she had asked her mother as to why she was an only child. Jane told her that she just had to be patient, keep being good and a brother or sister would come along soon. Her wish to be future leader of the gorillas seemed so stupid, insignificant and selfish to her now. Annabelle desperately wanted her parents to be happy and knew that she had to change her choice of wish. As she closed her eyes, she smiled at the thought that by end of tomorrow she would wish for a baby brother or sister and hopefully it might just come true.