Monkey See, Monkey Take!

“Attention all zoo staff! Be on the lookout for Coco. I repeat, be on the lookout for Coco!” a voice said over the radio.

“Ugh, she got out again?!” Andrew groaned, “That’s the tenth time this week! And its Tuesday!”

“What are you going to do?” Ingrid asked with a shrug. “They haven’t finished the new enclosure, yet.”

Coco was an orangutan that was a recent transfer to the zoo from her home zoo in Tokyo. She was surprisingly friendly with the staff and got along well with the other orangutans at the monkey house. There were just two things wrong with Coco. Firstly, she was, like most of the orangutans, extremely mischievous. Secondly, she had a knack for breaking out of her enclosures. So far, she had escaped the monkey house a total of 345,532 times, her most recent escape included. Fortunately, she liked the surrounding foliage of the zoo so much, that she never actually left the zoo grounds; making her easy to bring back in, but extremely difficult to track down.

--

Back with Lauren, the woman walked over to the bench nearest the showers and set the bag down. She opened it open and grabbed the white towel from the bag first. Next, she pulled out the soap bottle and the sponge, placing them on the towel. Then she pulled out the shirt; which had the zoo’s logo on the front.

Yeah, like I’m going to promote this place after today! Lauren thought to her, sarcastically rolling her eyes. She set that aside and set the pants – a pair identical to the staff’s uniform – next to the bag.

Well, time to get undressed now. Lauren thought, looking around her just in case. First she took off her boots and socks, setting them in the bag. When she did, she got noticeably shorter. See, with her boots or high heels Lauren stood at a generous 5’0”; but barefoot, she stood at only 4’2”.

Next, Lauren removed her shirt, sitting it in the bag as well. She removed her wallet and phone from her pockets; thankfully they weren’t damaged from the mud, so she decided to put them into the pockets of the new pants. And speaking of pants, those were the next to go as Lauren unbuckled her belt and slid her jeans off; putting them in the bag.

Now came the hard part. Lauren could live with herself if anyone found out about her being a lot shorter than she should be, but if anyone ever found out about her other enhancements…she shuddered to even think about it. Closing her eyes, she quickly took her padded underwear off, sitting them on the bench. When she opened her eyes, she saw that they were slightly damp from the muddy water. She wasn’t going to just going to leave without wearing them, so she just left them on the bench; letting them air dry.

Grabbing the towel, sponge and soap, the little woman walked towards the showers.

--

Outside the building, the branches of a tree began to shake. Suddenly, a large dark shape jumped down and landed on the ground. Coco the orangutan looked around her surroundings; this was a new area. Usually, her keepers would have caught her by now, but she never made it out to this area of the zoo.

Suddenly, a loud yelp rang out, causing Coco to jump back. She looked up to see the building she was currently standing in front of.

The door slightly ajar…

--

Okay, in retrospect, maybe I should have let her tell me which knob the hot water was. Lauren thought to herself. She had accidentally turned the knob on her left, spraying her with cold water. She then turned the knob on the right, releasing a jet of hot water that cascaded over her small body. She then reached for the sponge and started pouring soap onto it.

The water was so loud that she didn’t hear the door to the building open just enough to let an orangutan sized intruder through.

--

Coco looked around her new surroundings. This was completely different from where the troop slept in the back, where no people behind glass could see them. For one thing, tall metal climbing structures lined the walls and the water bowls where put behind doors that didn’t reach either the floor or the ceiling. There was also no comfortable hay to sleep on or toys to play with. And she couldn’t figure out why there was a waterfall in this building.

She was about to leave when something caught her eye. She crawled over to it and held it up. She had know idea what they were, but she could see a lot of padding in them. She would have to take these back to her exhibit later; maybe she could figure it out there.

The next thing she saw was a pile of…well, she didn’t know what they were called; all she knew was that humans wore this stuff over their fur, for some reason. She then got an idea; maybe if she put these on over her fur, her keepers would think she was a human. Reaching for them, she discovered that they were quite easy to slide on.

The final thing that she saw was something that made her really excited: a bag! Once, when a keeper was watching over her and her troop as they slept, Coco saw the she brought a bag with her. The keeper then went over to a table nearby and opened the bag, pulling out a piece of food! This bag was almost six times the size of the one the keeper brought with her, so that meant there had to be a lot of food in there! She was definitely bringing this back to the troop! Well, after she took her fill first.

This place wasn’t scary. It was amazing! So full of wonders! There wasn’t a single thing she could see that was scary about –

Suddenly, the hair on her neck shot up as a horrible screeching noise echoed through the area.

--

Lauren was in the process of washing her hair, having just finished washing the mud off her body. Ordinarily, this would take a while as her brunette hair reached down mid-back. However, yesterday she decided to get a haircut from the new salon that just opened up; big mistake. The hair stylist had accidentally cut her hair so much that it now came down to the tip of neck. She had given the stylist an ear full and threatened to sue them. The salon apologized and promised to provide their services to Lauren for a discounted price. Lauren accepted, but she promised herself she wouldn’t be going back there.

This bugged Lauren the most because she considered her hair her most adult feature. I mean, compared to everything else…Lauren thought glumly. She then shook her head and thought, Who cares? It’ll grow back soon!

In an effort to brighten her mood, Lauren hummed a few bars to a song she heard on the way up here. One thing that Lauren didn’t know about her was that she was tone deaf. She thought that she had the voice of an angel; everyone else knew she had the voice of a buzz saw. That was why Lauren’s mother had paid to get their bathroom sound proofed when Lauren was still living there; Lauren thought it had something to do with her sister, which made Vanessa hate her even more.

Lauren had just gotten the first verse of the song out of her mouth when, suddenly, a loud screeching noise made her jump. She turned off the water for a moment and heard footsteps running on the floor.

Is…is someone in here?! Lauren inwardly shrieked. She stuck her head out from behind the curtain just in time to see the door to the locker room slam shut. Stupid zookeepers! Keep that up and I’ll make sure not even preschools will want to visit here for field trips! Lauren thought angrily as she stuck her head back in and turned the water back on.

--

Coco ran as fast her legs could carry her. That place was a nightmare! Horrible, invisible monsters screeching and growling, just ready to attack! Fortunately, she just made it out of there alive. She would have a lot to tell her troop when she got back.

She even brought the bag and padded things with her as evidence of her adventures.

--

After a few minutes, Lauren had decided that she was clean enough. She shut off the water again, and grabbed her towel; drying herself off. After she felt that she was dry enough, Lauren wrapped the towel around her and opened the shower curtain.

And shrieked in horror when she saw both sets of her clothes and her padded underwear were gone!

“What – I – how – when – who?” Lauren babbled, trying to figure out what happened. “Who stole my clothes?!”

Then it hit her. The intruder who had slammed the door! Whoever it was must have snuck in and stolen her stuff without her noticing! Lauren snarled. Oh, that person is…so…dead!

Without thinking, Lauren marched right to the door and opened it wide. She stepped outside just a few inches away from the door.

“Alright! I know you’re out here!” Lauren shouted, “Give me back the things you stole or else I’ll – !”

Suddenly, she heard the door slam behind her; accompanied by a small beeping noise. Lauren’s face paled. She turned to the door and tried turning the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Oh no…” Lauren whispered in horror. Lauren then looked around, but no one was there; granted that was more of a double edge sword, but she needed help.

Please, don’t tell me that I have to walk around a zoo wearing only a towel. Lauren thought to herself. Sighing, she realized that she had ****. Lauren took a step forward, but felt a small tug. Lauren’s eyes shot wide as she looked behind her: her towel was stuck in the door. Oh, please, please, PLEASE tell me that I have to walk around a zoo wearing only a towel! Lauren thought in panic.

Lauren was at a crossroads. If she stood here and waited, she could still be covered and someone would help her get clothes and find her belongings. However, she had no idea how long it would take for someone to find her; she could be standing here all day!

If she ditched the towel, on the other hand, then she could either sneak to one of the zoo’s gift shops and…borrow some clothes or she could find someone to help her; or at least find something to wear. However, she had a the highest chances of getting caught if she wasn’t careful. If she got caught, who knew what would happen? She could be arrested!

What was she going to do?