I am a Mandrill. A Short Story.

Here is a short story I wrote about a mandrill* that escapes from the San Francisco Zoo. For the full text of the story click the link below. The images used in the story are stock photos photographers have uploaded to 'Unsplash.' Thanks to all the incredible photographers who have made their photos available to use for free.

The story begins:

This story is dedicated to all the animals confined at the San Francisco Zoo. May they, and all the animals in all the zoos across the world, gain their freedom one day soon.

I am a mandrill. I have hairy arms and hairy legs and I live here at the zoo in San Francisco. The San Francisco Zoo is located beside the beach. I can taste the salty ocean and I can hear the waves crashing along the shore at night. I have never seen the ocean, but when I was a child my mother said that the ocean is like the blue sky except with water which is held down upon the earth, and that the endless waves flow into sand like continuous ripples similar to those that appear in the puddles of my enclosure. My mother saw the ocean when people took her from the jungles of Togo where there were waterfalls to the San Diego Zoo where I was born. I remember my mom saying that because she was captured for the purpose of being kept in captivity, and not for the purpose of being killed for bushmeat, I was lucky. And that’s what my name is: Lucky.

*People commonly mistake mandrills as baboons. A mandrill is a primate closely related to the baboon and both species were once classified in the same genus. Mandrills are typically larger than baboons and have colorful muzzles and behinds (think Rafiki).

Full story: http://www.dividedcore.com/aarons-fiction/2013/8/16/i-am-a-mandrill.html

Unsplash: https://unsplash.com