The Origin of Species
“What’s it doing?”
“He. It’s a he. I think. Anyway, they’re people too.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. What’s he doing?”
“I’m not sure. He stopped walking around the enclosure a while ago. He’s just sort of…stood there.”
“Well is there a problem?”
“Not that I can see. He doesn’t look ill. Could you just come down and take a look at him?”
“Are you sure he’s not just, I don’t know, sleeping?”
“Quite sure.”
“Fine, but I’m not happy. Those things creep me out, you know that.”
Mr Jiggs came over to where Stanley was standing, scratching his head.
The big ape was peering in, looking at the two of them. It was as if it thought they were there for it’s amusement, or something.
“Weird” said Mr Jiggs, looking up at the ape. Then he looked at Stanley.
“Why did you call me all the way down here for this?” said Mr Jiggs, “It’ll move on in a bit if you ignore it. They lose interest after a while.” He clambered off back up the rope, muttering something about newbies.
Stanley stood and looked at the big ape for a minute, then went off to have a nap. He could see why Mr Jiggs found the big apes creepy. They would stand there in their makeshift fur with those weird things on their feet (the baldness didn’t help) and it was almost as if they were thinking.
