1st 5 Pages April Workshop- Belich

Name: T. James Belich
Genre: Middle Grade mystery
Title: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE LION IN THE NIGHT-TIME 

Ember woke and stared into the upside down face of a monkey.

"The King wants to see you," the monkey said. He held Ember by her tail. His paw had a small nub in place of a primate's usual thumb.

Ember flexed her long, thin body, and the light of the heat lamp reflected off her orange-brown scales. She flicked her tongue, tasting the air. The monkey needed a bath.

"Why does the lion not send for me after sunset like a civilized beast?"

"Cameron's dead," the monkey said. Ember stared at him through the black slits of her eyes. The monkey blinked. "He's one of the human keepers."

"And what has this to do with me?" Ember asked.

"This is important. We've got to get going before—"

Ember bit the monkey's paw.

"Ow!"

He dropped her, and she slid into the corner of her enclosure where she pressed her body against the glass. Across the hallway that would soon be filled with visitors to the new building, the brightly colored poison dart frogs hopped through the leaves.

"You're not venomous are you?" the monkey asked.

"You shall have to wait and see," Ember said.

"That's not funny." The monkey sucked on his finger. "I know you're still new here, but when the King—"

"Ssss. This is not the rainforest."

Green and vast, filled with the sounds of frogs and water, green and vast, free of all attachments. Ember's long heart ached for it. But she could never return. Because she had been so foolish as to put her trust in another.

"I have nothing to do with the affairs of mammals," Ember said.

"Tell that to the King." The monkey brushed back a tuft of dark fur that stuck up from his head. "They found Cameron in the lion habitat, the outdoor part. Next to the King. The keepers—the humans—think he did it, and you know what that means."

Ember had not been in the zoo long—a matter of weeks—but she had enough experience with humans to understand. Any animal the keepers considered dangerous would not be allowed to live.

"And?" Ember asked.

"And he didn't do it, so he shouldn't be blamed for it. It's not right."

No, it wasn't. And the guilty should not escape punishment.

"Very well," Ember said. "I shall listen to what the King has to say."

"We'll have to be quick. If you're not back before your keeper comes to check on you..." The monkey draped Ember over his shoulders. She looped around his neck. The monkey tugged on her coil. "Do you have to do that? It's creepy, like you're about to start squeezing."

"I do not wish to fall."

The monkey swung up into the open grate in Ember's enclosure. The edge of the vent scraped against her scales.

"Ssssss."

"Sorry," the monkey said. He did not sound it.

He shut the vent and crawled through the metal shaft until it turned and went up. The monkey jumped, caught something above them, and pulled them onto the flat roof of Ember's building. A long, thick branch stretched over the roof. The monkey jumped, grabbed the branch, and scrambled into the leaves. A small, round nest sat near the trunk.

A clump of humans—zookeepers—stood on the paved path below, talking in rapid, quiet voices.

Ember tickled Mop's nose with the tip of her tail. He sneezed. One of the keepers glanced up, but only for a moment.

"Don't do that," the monkey said.

"So little humor for a chimp."

"I'm a black-handed spider monkey."

After the humans scurried away, the monkey climbed the tree, skittered along another branch, and swung over the path, into the tree on the other side. Beneath them, the Galapagos tortoise ground away at his breakfast of leaves and flowers. Another jump, and Ember and the monkey landed in the tree outside the gorilla habitat. They passed the giraffes, more huddled keepers, plus a few of the human police.

"This has never happened before," Ember said.

"The keepers don't really know what to do," the monkey said. "They shouldn't notice us if we're quiet." Ember slid her tail under the monkey's nose, but he swatted it away. "Not funny."

"I disagree."

"It's no joke when the keepers find us out of our cages. Last time it took us monkeys a whole week to find a new way to escape."

The monkey dropped onto a long fence and crawled toward a squat, concrete building.

Ember flicked her tongue. She caught the musky taste of cat, a different kind than the jaguars of Costa Rica.

The monkey fumbled with the grate on the wall and squeezed inside. Ember flattened herself against the monkey's fur. He clambered through the shaft on all fours, his footsteps echoing inside the narrow, metal space. He stopped at a second grate.

"The keepers are, um, keeping the King in one of the inside enclosures," the monkey said, "away from the lionesses. I'll wait here for you."

"You are not coming with me?"

"Into the lion's den? Not today." He opened the grate. "Are you going to say thanks or do you want to find your own way down?"

"Ssss. I did not ask you to bring me."

"Whatever." The monkey held Ember by her neck and, holding the edge of the vent with his feet, he lowered Ember onto a wall of fake boulders. The rocks might be enough to clamber around on for a few minutes, but after that Ember guessed they ceased to be amusing.

The monkey climbed back inside the vent. "Just give a shout—or a hiss, I guess—when you're done." He shut the grate all but a paw's width.

Ember coiled up. A wall of glass separated the enclosure from the indoor viewing area. On the far side another wall of glass allowed visitors—the gawkers—to see the lions outside.

A large patch at the base of the fake rocks radiated heat. Ember slithered into a crack between two of the rocks at the bottom. She had never met a lion, but her experience with the jaguar had taught her caution.

The jaguar, who left Ember her life and her anger, giving the anaconda the opportunity to use her. Ember would not allow the King to do the same.

The warm patch stood, shook his mane, and padded over to Ember. His hot breath surrounded her.

"Come out here where I can see you," the King said.

Ember retreated into the crack. "You assume I trust your intentions. Your Majesty."

The King's chest rumbled. "You say that with disdain. Just because the humans do with us as they wish does not mean we must abandon our own ways."

"The King of Beasts is a human phrase. There were no lions in my rainforest." Ember lifted her head above the rest of her body. "Why have you summoned me?"

"Did the monkey not explain?"

"He explained that Cameron—one of your keepers, yes?—was found dead with you beside him," Ember said. "He explained you have been blamed for the human's death. But he did not explain why you asked for me."

The King crossed to the glass and stared through it. He, too, must feel the instinct to hunt, strong as a river current, but Ember could not lose more than she already had.