Here is an example of a fantasy set in Washington
State, written after a visit to the Chimpanzee and Human Communication
Institute in Ellensburg, Washington.
When I was younger I was taken from my
family and sent to a cold gray building in Washington State in the
United States. I was devastated and scared. I felt so alone without
my parents and my brothers and sisters. At least I had one brother
with me. Without him I would've felt even worse. The scientist
wanted me for an experiment to see if they could make me talk. I was
the smartest of the 15 of us that they took from our home in Asia. I
did not know the other apes very well at the beginning. We lived far
apart in the forest. Weeks later when I started to understand what
they were saying to me I said, “hello I am an ape, and my name is
Gerald.” I didn't actually use words, but my hands, the humans
call it sign language.
Years went by and I became the head of the
15 original apes. I have a brother named Roy that helps me with my
daily duties. Roy is smaller than I am so he can never be in charge.
That's how it works with us, you have to be big to be in charge.
Roys arms are smaller and his chest is less hairy than mine. My wife
is named Lucy. Lucy is shy and timid around the humans but when we
are alone she is a chatterbox. Lucy's hair is much longer than mine
and has a red tinge in the fluorescent lights. The air inside never
seems to circulate and is always too warm for us. The Institute
smelled like the humans not like the forest where I am from. I
missed the smell of earth and trees every day. There are 12 other
apes who are my closest friends. We live at the Chimpanzee and Human
Communication Institute in Ellensburg, Washington. The Institute is
very close to Central Washington University. In 1924 there is a
famous report of fighting between miners and the creature they later
would name Bigfoot. I guess that was just us trying to escape the
Institute.
The Central Washington University
Chimpanzee And Human Communication Institute was set up as a
sanctuary for chimpanzees to learn American Sign Language. The
humans were very nice and humane in our treatment and they tried to
improve our living conditions for captivity every day. There were
only three people that we saw every day. One was an old man who
always wore a hat and had hair coming out of his nose and ears.
There was a tiny Asian woman who had short black hair and wore huge
glasses that made her eyes look like fishes. The janitor was the
third person we saw every day. He was fat and short and completely
bald. The Institute was a great place for apes to live. Or at least
that's what the brochure said that they sell in their gift shop.
Chimpanzees are closely related to human beings and share 98.77% of
the human genetic makeup. I guess it was the 1.33% that made us want
to leave the Institute. The plan came together one day when a
visitor to the Institute was talking to her friend and I overheard
them. The bigger one said, “I can't wait for our trip to the Ape
caves in Amboy next weekend” the shorter friend said, “Is this
it another place like this? Are their really apes there?” The
bigger lady laughed and said, “I hope so the ones here are so
cute.”
After that conversation that day I started
to make a detailed plan with my other apes to go there. We started
swiping maps from the tourist every time they came by and eventually
found one that clearly said Ape Caves on Mt. St. Helens near Hill
Bridge Rd., Amboy, WA. Now that we had an address and a map with
directions we just had to get there. According to the map it was 184
miles away. The caretakers had no idea we knew how to use their
computers and often left us alone with them. I Googled the
directions and my wife Lucy started hiding food so we could take it
on our long trip. Lucy was very sneaky. She was so shy that no one
thought she would ever be brave enough to steal anything. That is
why she never got caught, people underestimate Lucy all the time.
Late one night we snuck out of our cages we
used the sign language the humans taught us to communicate silently
so we wouldn't wake up our caretakers. We snuck out of the Central
Washington University's Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
and never went back.
After sneaking out of the University the
fresh air outside was wonderful. We stuck closely to the main
highway route out of town following the main roads until we could
not see any buildings at all. The road noise frightened the younger
apes. The cars and trucks were spewing foul-smelling smoke that made
us ill. The first night was easy we were all so scared of getting
caught that we just ran all night. We were galloping like horses. We
followed the roads that the cars used so we wouldn't get lost, that
was Lucy's idea, and it worked. There were 15 of us all together.
All that running made us extra hungry so our food only lasted the
first five days. The only thing I missed from the Institute was the
smell of popcorn popping in the microwave. The janitor would
sometimes feed me popcorn when nobody was looking. My son Roy wanted
to steal from the humans and I told him I didn't want anything to do
with humans ever again. I was going to teach them how to live off
the land. I didn't know anything about living off the land but the
nice lady that taught me sign language left her laptop open and I
Googled it before we left. It was not a good idea to let the
other’s know I did not have a clue how to be away from the
Institute, it would just worry them.
I learned years later that there was a
famous report about a skirmish between miners and Bigfoot. We all
laughed like hyenas about it. That was just us running away. We
followed the Snoqualmie National Forest Road and came up upon a
bunch of miners digging in a hole. They were pretty quiet for such
big humans and we didn't see them right away. Once they saw us I
think they were surprised as we were and we both ran away. Anyway I
guess they told some newspaper people about it and people are still
looking for us in the forest.
We had walked for weeks and were now
following the National Forest Road 25. I had forgotten what real
trees look like. Oregon had huge green trees with leaves the color
of the sun. Some of the trees were tall and thin pine trees. My
favorite trees were the ones filled with the delicious bugs to eat.
The air was so clean and fresh outside I felt healthy and strong for
the first time since we had arrived. Once we got to Route 90 at the
Swift Reservoir my son Roy said, ”hey look up there I see a sign
it says Ape Caves ahead follow Yale Bridge Road!” Everyone was so
excited they all started running. The sound of all of us running was
deafening. The loud noises from our running made the birds fly away
in every direction.
The Ape Caves were beautiful. We arrived in
the middle of a sunny day. The outside of the caves were gray and
brown with green foliage covering every inch. The air smelled like
pine trees and sap.There were huge boulders that were gray with moss
growing on them. The air seemed wet somehow even though it wasn't
raining. When you breathe in the air you could almost drink it. We
learned once we got there that the Ape Caves do not contain any
other Apes at all. The Ape Caves are just a name humans gave the
area. They are actually a two-mile long lava tube formed when Mount
Saint Helens erupted about 2,000 years ago. I learned that from the
information at the visitor center. The Ape Caves are one of the
longest lava tubes in the world measuring 2.5 miles and are
completely dark. The tour guide said that humans need to bring a
very bright flashlight and the temperatures are in the low 40s, even
in the middle of the summer. We had come so far and even though we
were disappointed we went and explored the caves anyway. The caves
were wet and cold. It felt like the temperature must have dropped 10°
every few feet we walked. The glow of light from the outside went
further and further away as we hiked in. The walls were smoothed and
wet and smelled like rotting water. The water coming down the walls
tasted like Earth and was very cold.
My wife Lucy said, “I think I found a
secret tunnel.” We pushed through some heavy lava walls and sure
enough there was a beautiful oasis right behind the dark walls.
There were swinging trees and way off in the distance there was a
pool of water. We could barely believe how lucky we were. It was so
much warmer here in the oasis. The new oasis smelled like a warm
summer day. We named our new home Chimp Haven. We worked really hard
to build houses in the trees and gather enough berry bushes to plant
food for many years to come. We pushed the secret door back and
closed ourselves off from the humans forever. Many of the apes had
children including Lucy and I. We built homes just like we had back
in the jungles of Asia. Everybody had a job to do and we were busy
all the time just trying to make a safe place to live together. I
remained leader for 30 years until my son was old enough to take
over the job. All of the original 15 of us and all of the new
children born lived in the secret oasis for the rest of our lives.
We promised each other that we would never allow our children to be
taken by the humans the way we were.
I don't blame humans for keeping us in
cages and trying to teach us to speak. Some of the other apes were
mad at the humans and wanted to go out and hurt them. I had to work
hard to keep everybody calm. The Chimp Haven was home now and I had
to teach them how to be happy there. I was mad at the humans too but
revenge is a slippery slope. If we went after the humans our new
home would be ruined. The humans outnumber us and eventually they
would win any fight. The scientist and college kids were doing what
they believed was right. Sometimes humans can be so stupid. Humans
are always so convinced that they are at the top of the food chain
when it comes to brains but let's face it, apes are much smarter.
They were actually pretty nice to us, or so they thought, but we are
much happier here in the Ape Caves of Washington in our beautiful
oasis all together. Every once in a while one of us will go out and
let the humans think they saw Bigfoot just for fun
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