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you could come from faroff lands and profit?” Rakesh says as the elder monkeys look on in approval, shaking their heads.
    “I don’t know about this, surely I would never . . . ”
    “Silence!” Rakesh interrupts. “I know your kind all to well. You love the monkey when we are for your picture taking and amusement, but besides that you take from the jungle, from the monkey. You cut our trees, and this is fine. The trees live to give, and give they will to all of the Earth, but you now take more than you need. You pollute our waters with your filth and plastic. You go off into our jungles and enjoy the love of our great jungle and give very little or nothing back except a stream of devastation. I speak for the jungle, for she gives and gives and never complains, but you take and take and self-absorbed in your silly little worlds of trinkets and such have forgotten about the balance. You have forgotten who you are indeed, you have forgotten that you are the jungle, you are the monkey who has lost his way.”
    He takes a deep breath as he glances back at one of the elders, who nods at him to go on, “Now you boast you are more intelligent than the monkey. The intelligent human, you know so much, yet can’t even survive in the jungle one day. Intelligent human, bah!” He finishes, raising his hands up as monkeys begin to hoot and ha, shaking the trees above.
    Swallowing past the uneasy lump in his throat, Paul looks over at Bandar, who now wears a look of concern on his face. The audience of monkeys grows louder as Rakesh orders, “Silence!” The trees fall silent, and all fix on his next words.
    “So this is ‘who you are’ and you’d do well to join back with ‘who you are’ in town.”
    “But surely I am not this, I can’t be, I know.”
    “You know , you know!” Rakesh emphasizes, silencing the man as he now comes closer, staring at him in disgust. His dark red face now match his eyes, blaring in crimson anger, offsetting his grayish auburn coat. Taking a deep breath, he calmly says through his sharp yellow teeth, “Know this, ‘man.’ Humans have been given the great gift and have misused it for fleeting pleasure and cheap laughs. Your gift has become your curse.” Bits of spit spew from the passionate words onto Paul as he looks down at Rakesh. “Many times I have sat in your towns observing, and with all these ‘things’ you are still miserable. You think more will somehow make you happy, so you consume more, you take from the jungle and don’t give back. You kill the blessed cow and thank her not. You tie the donkey to do your bidding, you chain the monkey to turn a rupee , and all the while grasping at more, you have forgotten ‘who you are.’ This is a shame,” he finishes, hanging his head with a shake of disapproval. “So go now. Bandar will take you back to ‘who you are.’” He turns away, walking past Bandar, “Take him back to the main center. That is where he belongs.”
    “But, Rakesh,” Bandar pleads.
    “Rakesh nothing,” he hisses showing his teeth and lowering Bandar’s head in inferiority.
    “But, sir, perhaps you can teach me, and I can help the humans to understand,” Paul asks in his last attempt to smooth him over.
    Walking away toward the tree with the elders, Rakesh comes to a halt before turning to answer. “Long have been the days when man and monkey saw eye to eye. Man rose up and forgot about the monkey, and now man is the lost monkey who pretends he is not. There is no hope for man. My only hope is that when you wipe each other out with your ignorance and wars you don’t take the monkey and jungle with you. I fear that is a wish not to be fulfilled. You may mean well, man, but I know your species all too well, and soon will come the time when even you will want to rule the monkey. Yet the monkey is governed by a force far more powerful than any man, ridden with greed, could manage to be. So please, go now, there is no hope for man.”
    “But perhaps .