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One and Only Ivan pgs. 123-143

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Highsmith Jackson today I'm going to be starting on page 123 return to page 123 and it's called the grunts I was born in a place humans call Central Africa and it dents DeForest oh beautiful no crayons could ever do it justice gorillas don't name their newborns right away the humans do we get to know our babies first we wait to see hints of what they might be when they saw how much she loved chase me around the forest my parents decided on my twin sister's name tag oh how I love to play tag with my sister she was Nimble when I got to close she would leap onto my unsuspecting father and then I would join her bounce on that tolerant Belly until he gave us the grunt the rooting pig sound that meant enough that game never got old although my father might have disagreed 81205 mud didn't take long for my parents to find my name all day long everyday I made pictures I'd run rocks and bark and my poor mother's back they use sap from leaves is juice from fruits mostly use mud and that's what they called mut 20 human mud might not sound like much but to me it was everything h126 protector my family which humans college group was like any other the family there were ten of us to my father the Silverback my mother and three other adult females a juvenile Now call the black back into young gorillas and I were the babies of the group we squabbled now and then is fam Well With My Father knew how to keep us in line with a simple School scowl and for the most part we were happy to do what we were meant to do two feed and forage and nap and play my father was a master at leading us to the ripest fruit for the morning the finest branches for night Nest he was everything a Silverback is meant to be a guide a teacher and a protector and no one could beat no one could just be like my father 127 a perfect life Gorilla babies in elephant baby is in human babies are not so different except for gorilla gets to spend the day riding on his mother's back like a cowboy on a horse is a pretty gate system from the baby's point of view slowly carefully young gorilla begins to venture farther and farther away from the safety of his mother's arms he learns his skills we need as an adult how to make a nest of branches with them tightly or they will fall apart middle of the night how to beat your chest up your palms to an amplify the sound had to go Vining from tree to tree don't let go how to be kind strong and well growing up gorillas just like any other kind of growing up you make mistakes you play you learn and you do it all over again it was for awhile a perfect life page 128 the end one day it's still day when the hot air hummed the humans came page 129 fine after they captured my sister and me they put us in a cramped darkwraith it smelled of urine and fear somehow I knew and in order to live I had to let my old life. I owe my sister could not like all of our home and held her like a Vine stretching across the miles comforting strangling we were still in our crate when she looked at me without seeing I knew that the I had finally snapped page 130 the temporary human it was Max who pried open my crate Mac who bought me in who raised me like a human baby I wore diapers I drank from a bottle I slept in human beds I sat and human chairs listen while human words swarmed around me like Angry bees makit had a wife back then Helen was quick to laugh but also a quick to anger to especially when I broke something which was often hears what I broke when I lived with mac and Helen one crib 46 glasses seven lamps in one couch free shower curtains three shower rods one blender one TV one radio and three toes my own I broke the blender when I squeeze three tubes of toothpaste and a bottle of glitter into it I broke my toes attempting to from a lamp fixture on the ceiling I broke 46 glasses well it turns out there's many ways to break a glass every weekend Mac and Helen took me in their convertible to a fast food restaurant when the order me french fries and a strawberry shake Mac love to see the expression on the cashier's face when he drove up and said that I have some extra ketchup for my kid went to baseball games to the grocery store to the movie theater in even to the circus they didn't have a gorilla I wrote a little motorbike and blue eye candles on my birthday cake my life is a human with a glamorous one although my parents traditional sort would not have approved 133 hunger in my new life as a human I was well tended I ate lettuce leaves the Thousand Island dressing and caramel apple caramel apples and popcorn with butter my belly ballooned hunger like food comes in many shapes and colors at night lying alone my Pooh pajama I felt hungry for the skilled Touch of a grooming friend with a cheerful friends of a play fight for the easy state have a nearby troop foraging through the Shadows remember what happened to tag I told myself don't think about the jungle still sometimes I lie awake wishing for the warmth of another just like me asleep and in Nest tender prayer plant leaves I liked having sips of soda poured into my mouth like a bubbling waterfall and every now and then I longed to search Pretenders talk of arrowroot to feel the teeth the mango just Out Of Reach 8135 still life one day Helen came home with something large and flat wrapped in brown paper look what I bought today she said excitedly a painting to go over the living room couch in a bowl Max said with a shrug big deal this is fine art still life Helen explained and I think it's lovely I dashed over to examine the painting marveling at the colors and shapes see seven ex-wife Ivan likes this Ivan likes to roll up poop and throw it at squirrels Smack That I couldn't take my eyes off the apples bananas and grapes in the picture they look so real so inviting and so edible I reached out to touch a grave and Helen slap my hand that boy Ivan don't touch he drugged her thumb at Mac honey go get a hammer in and out would you I'll Mac and Helen were busy in the living room I wandered into the kitchen the cake covered in thick frosting that on the counter I like it I love it in fact but it wasn't eating I was thinking of how but it wasn't eating I was thinking about it was painting the Frosted feet and dipped like waves and a tiny pop rich and gooey dark and smooth it looks like a mud I scooped up a handful of frosting is scooped up another I had it to the refrigerator door it was perfect and empty white waiting campus depressing wasn't as easy to work with a jungle mud with as jungle but it was stickier and of course more tempting to eat but I have to have it I scraped off every last bit of the frosting I may have eaten a little cake to I don't remember what I was trying to paint a banana most likely I suppose I knew I was going to get in trouble but at that moment I just didn't care I wanted to make something anything the way I used to I wanted to be an artist again is 138 punishment I soon learned that humans can Screech even louder than monkeys after that I was never allowed in the kitchen page 139 babies back in those days the big top mall was smaller and had a pony ride a wooden train that bustled around the parking lot a few red red red rag. In a surly spider monkey butt when MacBook baby gorilla dressed in a crisp tuxedo to the mall everything changed people came from far and wide to have their pictures taken with me they brought me blocks and a toy guitar they help me in their Labs once they even held a baby in mine she was small and slippery bubbles float from her lips she squeezed my fingers and her rear was Tuffy with padding or legs both like mint fix I made a face she made a face I granted she grunted I was so afraid she would fall that I squeezed her tightly and her mother gave her away one of my mother ever worried about dropping us we always held on but that's easier to do when your mother is furry human babies are an ugly lot their eyes are like our babies eyes too big for their faces and for the world page 141 that's one day after many weeks of law talking Helen packed a bag and slammed the front door and never came back I don't know why I never know why the why of humans that night I slept with mac and his my old nests were woken out of leaves shaped like a bathtub cool green cocoons Mac's been like mine was flat hot without sticks or Stars still he made a sleeping sound like the rumble of my father used to all was well the sound deep inside his belly page 142 my place makris Ellen I grew bigger I became what I was meant to be too large for chairs too large for hugs too big for human life I tried to stay calm to move with dignity I did my best to eat daintily a human ways are hard to learn especially when you're not a human when I saw my new domain I was real who wouldn't have been I had no furniture to break no glasses to smash no toilets to drop Max Keys into it even had a tire swing I was relieved to have my own place somehow I didn't realize I'd be here now I drink Pepsi eat old apples and watch reruns on TV but many days I forget what I'm supposed to be am I a human and my gorilla humans have so many words more than they truly need do they have no name for what I am

Uploaded by Jessica Jackson.

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One and Only Ivan pgs. 123-143

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