The Land of Monkita

"DINNERTIME!" yelled Sarah's mother from the foot of the stairs. "Sarah, come down here, now!"

"Coming!" shouted Sarah. "I'll be right there!"

It was five fifty-eight, two minutes to the Dillon family's dinnertime. No one was allowed to be late to dinner, or else they weren't allowed to leave the house at all the next day. Sarah had a schedule of riding her bike and playing a little basketball every afternoon at 3:45 p.m. She definitely didn't want to miss it, since it was the best part of the day.

"Sarah! IT'S FIVE FIFTY-NINE!"

"ALRIGHT, I'M COMING!"

Sarah didn't really feel hungry, but she couldn't miss her chance to go outside the next day! She wouldn't be seeing her house for a while because the day after tomorrow, she and her parents would be going to St. Paul, Minnesota, to visit a relative. That would mean she would have to abandon her schedule for a whole week.

Sarah sat down on her bed, looking around at the odd sets of materials bunched up together on her black desk: her shell collection, her sticker book, her watch, many of her maps, etc. She didn't exactly want her possessions to be bunched up together, so she decided to clean up. Her shell collection went in a corner of her desk, her sticker book went in her topmost desk drawer, her watch went on her wrist, and her maps went on the last desk drawer. She sat down on her bed again, thinking about what improvements her room needed. She needed another shelf, as far as she could think of. She went over to her door and stared hard at her room. The bed was in a corner of the room, right under the air-conditioning and straight next to the window. Next to it was her wooden night stand, on which was a wonderful 3-disc changer stereo. Her desk was on the opposite wall, with three drawers. Her small dressing table was placed next to her shelf, which was

filled with an enormous collection of books. On top of her night stand, Sarah placed her alarm clock. She looked at her clock and saw exactly what time it was: 6:09! She was obviously nine minutes late for dinner. Now she was in trouble!

Sarah washed her hands and went down to the dining room. Her mother cast an angry look at her and said, "Sit down" in a very stern voice, while her father just sat there glaring at her.

"Um, Mom?" said Sarah. "I'm sorry I was late to dinner. I was reorganizing my room."

"Sit down," her mother replied.

"But..."

"Sit."

In the Dillon family, being late to dinner, even if it was only nine minutes, was a harsh punishment. Therefore, Sarah lost her chance to go anywhere the next day. Well, she still would get some time to pack up for the trip to Minnesota.

The next day, Sarah was left all alone. She just wandered around her room, reading books, cleaning out her drawers, listening to music from her stereo. She and her mother did have a quiet lunch, after which she went straight to her room. Since her room was directly on top of the garage, she knew when her father came in. She packed up for the upcoming Minnesota trip, but nothing helped. She went downstairs and greeted her parents, who just mumbled back a reply. They both seemed to be a bit scared about something. Sarah and her parents ate dinner, to which the young girl ensured that she wasn't late. Everyone was awfully quiet, and Sarah felt a nervous sensation in the pit of her stomach.

After dinner, she went up to her room, back to more boredom. Now she noticed something very odd-her golden bracelet was missing. It was true that she often misplaced this bracelet, but this morning she could still remember herself putting it on her night stand! It was apparently stolen.

"Oh my god!" Sarah cried. "MY BRACELET! Mom will kill me!"

She thought back to the day when her mother had given her this bracelet at the age of eleven.

"Never, ever take this bracelet off of your wrist. Trust me, if you do, you'll be really sorry."

Now she was thirteen, and she didn't really want her mom to find out the bracelet was missing. After all, she did wear her bracelet all the time, except when she was asleep.

Sarah took a short nap and when she awoke, it was already eight o'clock. She yawned, stretched, and went downstairs to see how her parents were doing. However, once she reached the foot of the stairs, she realized no one was home.

"Mom? Dad?" Sarah whispered. She was frightened, for her parents never left her all alone without telling her so. "Is anyone home?"

She went into the kitchen and saw a note left on the counter. Sarah crept up to the note. It wasn't dangerous, obviously, but she still had a bad feeling that something dreadful was written in it. She was correct. Once she got hold of the note, she recognized her mother's handwriting. It looked like it was written very quickly due to the scribbled handwriting. The note said:

Dearest Sarah,

I'm really really sorry for not informing you about this, but, well, you aren't exactly supposed to be leaving the house today, remember? You were late for dinner last night. Anyways, lets just get to the point. I have gone to your Aunt Debby's house. She is really sick. I was going to take you, but you were late for dinner, and I want to teach you a lesson by letting you understand that the punishment I mentioned is true. You aren't allowed to go anywhere, even parties, if you are late for dinner. Anyways, it's a one-hour drive, so I'll be home at around midnight. Your father will be coming home soon, I believe it'll be around 10:30. So once again, I'm sorry I couldn't let you know about this earlier, but it was an emergency.

Love,

Mom

"So that explains it," Sarah whispered to herself. "Mom went to Aunt Debby's without telling me!"

Sarah had never really liked to go to her Aunt Debby's house because it always smelled of paint. Also, Aunt Debby knew Sarah was thirteen years old, but treated her like she was two. She usually stayed home while her parents went to the paint-smelling house. Well, she was alone. That's why she decided to go on and play games on her old Windows 98 computer. It was bought when she was about seven years old, so it was really slow.

She started playing her favorite games until she was so tired she wanted to fall asleep in her chair. It was past 10:30 but her father still had not come home. Sarah closed the magnificent game of Pinball and made her eyes simply stare at the desktop.

"I wish this entire room was clean!" she screamed, staring at the computer screen. She was referring to the totally untidy computer room. Instantly, the books flew into the air as if an invisible person was holding it up in space. All the unnecessary papers on the floor organized themselves and landed neatly inside the white recycle bin that stood straight up next to the computer desk. Sarah stared in shock as every single item in the room organized itself except for a hole puncher that never left the desk; it was attached. In two whole minutes, the room was definitely spotless.

"Oh my god!" cried Sarah. "What just happened!? I know I didn't see anything happen, did I? No...I was imagining the room cleaning itself."

Then she watched, mesmerized and petrified at the same time, as the computer opened up Microsoft Word without her touching a single thing. One by one, several sentences came upon the screen:

"No, you are not imagining it. I know you hate me for being a slow computer, but trust me, I can make your wishes come true. Just stare deeply into the screen and say your wish, and that's just what will happen immediately. "

"Who are you?" Sarah typed on the screen.

"You do not need to know at this instant. Of course you may never know, but that is the way it is supposed to be."

"Is there a limit to how many wishes I get to have?" typed Sarah.

"Oh, no! You may have as many wishes that you want. However, I have heard that you are planning to throw me away?"

"Now that I know of your powers, I don't think I'll do that any longer," Sarah replied, typing.

Sarah thought about this newly discovered power of her very own computer. This was more than she had ever imagined. She could wish for anything and have it granted. To test her power, Sarah gazed into the computer screen and said, "I wish I knew where my parents were."

Once again, Microsoft Word opened up by itself, and, as if an invisible person was typing it, came the words: "They're with the monkeys; I cannot say anymore. They're with the monkeys; I cannot say anymore."

"What monkeys?" Sarah typed.

"I cannot say anymore...I cannot say anymore..."

'So that explains it all. Mom didn't go to Aunt Debby's, and Dad didn't go to work,' Sarah thought. 'They're with a bunch of monkeys.'

Nothing made any sense, and Sarah was worried. She decided to call her Aunt Debby to be sure that her mother was seriously with the "monkeys". She dialed the number and waited. The phone rang four times. Finally, her Aunt Debby answered in a tired voice.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Aunt Debby. This is Sarah," Sarah said.

"Oh, hi there, Sarah? How are you?" Aunt Debby replied. "I was just making myself a cup of

tea. How's your mom?"

"That's the problem. Aunt Debby, did Mom come to your house today?" Sarah asked.

"As a matter of fact, she didn't. Is something wrong?" Aunt Debby questioned Sarah.

"No, not really.... Well, yeah actually. Mom's not home. She left a note saying that she would be at your house," Sarah informed her, her heart sinking terribly.

"Well, Sarah, no, nobody came to my house today. Is that the only reason you called?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then I better go now. I'm cooking a special recipe from my favorite cookbook today," Aunt Debby stated proudly.

"Okay, bye," responded Sarah miserably.

Now what was she to do? Her parents were missing. They were obviously with the monkeys. Anyhow, she'd have to use her time to keep her from becoming unbearably distressed. She sat on the computer chair and looked around. When she had wished for the room to become clean, everything had moved and reorganized itself except for the hole-puncher that was permanently attached to the desk. She didn't know why, though. Whoever heard of a hole-puncher being stuck to a table?

Sarah was a girl with an inventing mind. She could take things apart and put them back together. That gave her the idea of taking apart the hole-puncher. Sarah gawked at the hole-puncher awkwardly. It seemed very strange, and she had the feeling that she really shouldn't be doing this. However, confidence kept her hopes up, and she started to believe that she really could open up the hole-puncher.

First, Sarah tried pulling the item off the desk with great force. Obviously, no effect occurred. Next she brought a screwdriver and unscrewed the screws of the hole-puncher. With this, the hole-puncher fell apart. She had expected to find the artifact in terms of distress, in which there would be broken pieces here and there, but instead, she gazed at a diminutive door. It was so minuscule that her whole hand would not be able to fit through at all.

The mysteriousness of a teeny tiny door inside her hole-puncher astounded her. She literally wanted to find out what it led to. After all, who would ever find a door inside a hole-puncher? Sarah studied the door for a while until she spotted a minuscule key underneath the door. The key would be small enough to fit into the petite keyhole. She used her centimeter-long fingernails to scoop it up in her hands and fit it into the keyhole perfectly. The result was that the door would not budge.

Sarah trudged up to her "wishing" computer and stared deeply into its screen. She said the words, "I wish this teeny tiny key would open the teeny tiny door." She went back to the door and after about fifteen minutes, finally opened the door. Her mind was perplexed, and she really did not know what to expect beyond the entry. She stuck her hand inside and once again realized that she would not fit. Therefore, Sarah sat down on the rolling chair and sighed a depressing sigh.

She gazed at the door miserably and finally realized that she was looking at a red button next to the door. She used the tip of her fingernail to push it, and immediately the miniature door became a perfect-sized door, large enough for her to pass through. She walked through it and found herself in a narrow passageway. She took a step forward and paused. Then she took a deep breath and took another step forward.

Two doors were visible at the end of the passageway. With more confidence in herself, she paced up to it and hesitated. Which door should she take? For absolutely no reason at all, she turned the knob of the left door and found herself in a circular ramp. She followed the ramp until she found another door. She opened the door, stepped through it, and found herself in the computer room. The door behind her had disappeared, so she basically had to redo the procedure of fitting the key into the door and so on. Once again, she found herself in the narrow passageway.

Sarah decided to take the right door this time, and once she opened it, she immediately viewed a door at the end of the passageway. As she walked, the passage became wider, and once she opened the door, she realized that she had made a big mistake. Sarah instantly heard voices of creature-like humans.

She found herself in a circular room, with purple-"monkeys" was it? in a discussion area. Sarah was so stunned by looking at the monkeys that she did not realize that a little baby monkey had quietly paced up to her.

"Hello," said the monkey in the squeakiest voice Sarah had ever heard. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" whispered Sarah in a completely frightened voice.

"My name is Ann," said the monkey. "And you are..."

"I'm Sarah," replied Sarah.

"Do you want to know what Chief Monkey and the rest of the governors are discussing?" squeaked Ann.

"Sure," replied Sarah, extremely confused.

"Chief Monkey wants to gain power for himself. Right outside of this chamber is a vast room with white tiles on the floor. Humans from earth have to run on that floor, and that is the way he'll gain power."

"What does humans running have to do with gaining power?" asked Sarah curiously.

"When the humans run on the floor, those monkeys gain control of that planet earth's weather. They plan to destruct the planet by adding extremely bad weather to the already horrible hurricanes and tornadoes going on there. Oh boy, I do feel sorry for those earth peoples."

"Are you saying that I'm not on earth?" Sarah asked.

"You're on Monkita," replied the little monkey. "Or the Land of the Monkeys."

Sarah was shocked. Not only had she left her friends and family behind after she traveled through the hole-puncher, but she had also traveled to a distant planet. Soon after that, Sarah and Ann became best friends, even though one was a monkey and the other was a human. After series of eavesdropping on the chief meetings, they both realized that the chief's plan was to make all the citizens of the monkey world do labor in the terrible weather.

Sarah was lying down in a secret hideout in Ann's backyard when her mind instigated an idea. She decided that she really must stop this. These harsh acts could not be done to the people of earth and Monkita! They were all innocent! The world needed peace! This would only cause more conflicts in the world!

Sarah decided to tell Ann about her thinking. She wanted to tell her new monkey friend that the acts being done were totally unfair and unjust. She truly hoped that Ann would come to her side and help her overthrow the chief's plans. The next morning, when the breeze was light and the sunlight shone brightly, and no citizen in Monkita knew yet about what was to happen as their fate, Ann hiked up to Sarah.

"You know what I've just found out?" asked Ann. "My dad, the Chief Monkey, needs three major things to control the weather."

"Hang on," replied Sarah, confused. "The Chief Monkey is your dad?"

"Er...yeah! Didn't I tell you?" asked the monkey.

"As a matter of fact, you didn't," replied Sarah. "But anyways, get on with your story."

"Those monkeys need three items to control the weather: any golden bracelet that is supposed to act as a key, a special rainbow-colored Frisbee that you just throw into the air and state the type of weather you want, and human footsteps in that big room I told you about."

Sarah wholly understood why her golden bracelet was missing now. The monkeys had stolen it because it was a key to their power. Her mother had always told her to wear it because she wanted to prevent Sarah from danger. Her mother! Sarah had nearly forgotten about her parents! Tears came to her eyes as she thought about them and the last time she had seen them. She felt so bad and horrible that her parents were with her long enough to observe her misbehavior of not coming to dinner on time.

That's when a thought struck her. Ann had told her that one of the needed items was human footsteps on the floor. Maybe, just maybe, her parents could be one of those humans who has to run on that floor. With a little more hope, Sarah sat down and thought about more ways to prevent the Chief Monkey from acquiring his goal. She could always destroy the Frisbee, couldn't she? Ann had told her that the monkeys already had the Frisbee and the golden bracelet, but not enough people to run on the tiled floor.

The next time Sarah met Ann, she asked her, "Where exactly is the Frisbee?"

"It's supposed to be in a glass box located in the tiled room."

"Where's that?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" asked Ann suspiciously.

"Just asking," replied Sarah.

A few days later, Ann became sick. Therefore, Sarah was left all alone. She couldn't go visit Ann because the purple monkey's mother was with her daughter, and Sarah could not risk the chance of being seen by any other monkey. Therefore, she decided to take a look at the tiled room. Sarah had been told where it was because of Ann's big mouth, and secretly reached the place. Once she got there, she saw a myriad number of humans in the most gigantic room she had ever seen in her life! Perhaps her mother and father were in here, but she really couldn't tell. All the humans seemed to be in some sort of trance and probably did not know who they were and why they were there. Finally, Sarah spotted her mother and father jogging at a slow speed. They were coming nearer, and nearer, and nearer!

"MOM!" shouted Sarah as loudly as she could. "DAD!"

Neither of them looked up, even though they were only a meter away from her. 'That means they can't even hear me!' Sarah thought. 'They don't even know me!'

Sarah finally remembered why she was there - to destroy the Frisbee. She looked around and saw that it was right next to her! It was midair inside a glass box, under which was a set of numbers. Clearly, there was a code that needed to be entered to open the glass box. In tiny writing under the box said, "Enter the four-digit code and say OPEN." That was her first clue as to what the code may be - it had four numbers. When it came to deciphering codes, Sarah always started off with the number 2, and this was no exception. She pressed the numbers that came to her mind: 2654, 2916, 2315, 2899, 2766, 2897, 2456, 2015, etc. Every time she did it, a little screen came up with the words, "INCORRECT CODE".

Extremely frustrated, she just banged her fingers onto the number panel, and ended up pressing the numbers 2145. The screen became light green and no words came upon it. Therefore, she just said "OPEN". Right in front of her own eyes, the glass box lifted up and set itself right next to Sarah. Beautiful. Sarah hesitated before actually touching the Frisbee. Once she did, her hopes rose up with confidence that in fact she really could free her parents from such a trance.

Sarah grabbed the Frisbee and ran away, as fast as she could, back to her secret hideout in Ann's backyard. She stayed there for a whole day. Ever since she had come to Monkita, she had not had a bit of food because in this land, a person-monkey's food was the air. By breathing the air, they were supplied with "food". Sarah started debating whether or not she should tell Ann about the Frisbee. Soon, she decided that she would.

When Ann got better, she visited Sarah and asked her how she was. Seeing Sarah's troubled face, Ann asked her what was wrong. After Sarah explained to Ann why and how she stole the Frisbee from its proper place, Ann's purple mouth fell open with shock.

"YOU WHAT?" she screamed. "YOU STOLE THE RAINBOW FRISBEE FROM MY FATHER'S GLASS BOX?"

"Are you mad?" asked Sarah.

"OF COURSE I AM!" yelled Ann. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO GO AROUND STEALING, SARAH. I HAVE TO GO NOW, SO GOODBYE."

Now Sarah was left with no one to talk to, no way to get home, and she had a feeling she should just go and join the human runners in the tiled room. Meanwhile, Ann was debating whether or not she should tell her father, the Chief Monkey, about Sarah and the Frisbee. The young monkey had had such a wonderful time while Sarah was with her, and she wished she had controlled her anger. Since there was no way to be friends again, Ann decided to tell her father everything. But to do that, she would have to wait for a whole week, for her father was on an out-of-planet trip to collect more humans.

Sarah knew she didn't have much time. It seemed pretty obvious that Ann would go and tell on her to her father. Her only hopes were that she could stop the cruel monkey acts before it became too late. That meant that she would have to start at that moment.

A few hours later, Sarah took another trip to the tiled room, only to find that the humans were still running. It seemed as if they were not allowed to take a single break. Also, none of them looked tired at all. Sarah took a close look at the now-empty glass box and immediately saw something shiny a few feet away. As she gingerly paced up to it, she saw that it was a golden bracelet attached to the floor. Not only was it a golden bracelet, it was her golden bracelet.

"Ohhh!" mumbled Sarah. She immediately got to work and soon, the bracelet was no longer attached to the floor anymore. It was now in her hands, and she felt a flavor of warmth as she put it on her wrist. She felt so good and happy - she had her bracelet back! Her mother would be proud that she found her own item all by herself.

Her mother! She turned around to catch a glimpse of her parents, and immediately found that all the human runners were staring at her.

"Er... hello there," she said, a bit panicky. "How you doing?"

"Excuse me," said a familiar voice. A woman pushed through the crowd and finally gazed at her. "Sarah," she asked in a tearful voice.

It was her mother.

"Sarah?" asked another tearful voice. "Is that really you?"

It was her father.

"Sarah?"

"Sarah?"

Two voices interrupted her thoughts, and as she turned around, she saw that the room was filled with people she knew! The parents of her best human friend from back home, Kristy, were here! Sarah did not have any idea why so many known people would be here, but at least they were back to their normal state!

After long discussions on what had happened, Sarah and her parents, along with all the other humans, realized that they needed to leave, no matter what. An old lady who had not spoken yet, spoke up.

"There's a door at the end of this chamber. I just discovered it about twenty minutes ago. Maybe it can help us get out!"

Sarah strode up to the door and opened it. She was gazing into a narrow passageway once again. At the end of it was only one door. One by one, each human walked through the door and was in their own house again. Sarah and her parents went last. When their turn came, Sarah made sure that she had her golden bracelet, which she decided she would never take off again, even in her sleep. The Frisbee had been destroyed, and once Sarah walked through the door, she was in the room of the wish-granting computer. Her parents followed, and soon everyone was cheerful.

Sarah walked up to her computer, stared at the screen and said, "I wish I knew how this computer knows everything."

In reply, the computer once again beared the words, "I am really Ann, the monkey you have seen in Monkita, in a computer form. You are lucky to have me as your computer, because you are the only one who has this special gift. By the way, Chief Monkey has given up on his power job, because now there is not a golden bracelet, and the rainbow Frisbee was found in pieces in the tiled room. Anyways, I have to go now, so see you!"

After that, Sarah and her family lived happily ever after. Sarah also ensured that she was never late to dinner again, for because of that, she missed a whole load of things.

The End