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Continuation of Do you know the monkey man" series by Logan Niadin. Plans for Christmas in the Rego household were well advanced. Richard was very excited about his new clothes and checked to see if they were still in his chest-of-drawers every morning. A small little disappointment was that he did not have long pants. How he worried his Mum and Dad, to no avail. Ah well! Life is a constant battle - some you win, some you don’t.
He had his lunch and said, ‘Ma, I’m taking my Daisy (air rifle) and will be with Noel in the gully by the hockey field.’ ‘Ok, said his Mum, but don’t go near the Quartz dump, I don’t want you falling and fainting.’
(Richard always fainted when he saw blood) ‘Ok, Ma.’ He said, and off he went.
Noel was waiting for him and the both of them headed off for the gully, by the hockey field. As they reached the road, they heard the sound of a beating drum, in the distance. That meant that Mr Kaufman would soon be marching by, with his troop of Punjabi security guards. They sat down at the side of the road and waited. Soon they were joined by all the children from the block.
They loved Mr Kaufman, because as he passed he would very seriously give the command for his troop to salute the children, and in turn, they would stand to attention and salute him. Then as the troop passed them, they would all get into formation at the back and march to the beat of the drum ---- a’doom, a’doom, a’doom doom doom. Richard and Noel always at the front with their guns at their shoulders. As they reached the big house at the top of the road the children stopped and watched the Punjabi guards march away. The sound of the beating drum, getting fainter as the troop went further.
Richard and Noel made their way to the gully. Soon they were stalking a bloodsucker, a big red crested one with protruding green eyes. It ran up the trunk of a tree and with a characteristic bobbing of its head, it presented itself as a perfect target. Noel took aim and squeezed the trigger. Missed, the dart imbedded in the tree trunk, near the creature’s tail. Didn’t bother the bloodsucker, it just moved a bit to the left. Richard lined up, took aim, held his breath and squeeeesed the trigger.
Missed, the dart imbedded on the other side of the tail. The blood sucker, stayed where he was, bored now. Just as Noel took aim again, it moved up an inch, putting him off. ‘Lets both fire together’ said Richard. ‘Ok,’ said Noel. ‘Ready, aim, fire.’ The bloodsucker took off, and ran to safety
towards the Quartz dump.
The boys retrieved their darts from the tree, and started a game of shooting at Red Indians. Richard was Roy Rogers, and Noel was Hop Along Cassidy. They lay on their bellies, pretend, shooting at whooping Red Indians circling their camp. They soon tired of that, and sat under the tree. Noel pulled out a ‘Bum stinger’ (a small catapult) from his pocket and started firing small pebbles at a cactus head, while Richard pulled out his ‘Coronation’ pen knife, that his uncle had sent him from England, and started whittling a piece of wood.
Suddenly, they both froze. There were shouting noises coming from around the corner of the Quartz Dump. Richard, ever curious, started off
in the direction of the shouting. Noel, stayed back. ‘No Richard, we are not allowed,’ he warned, but his friend was already trotting away. He couldn‘t help but follow. He lost sight of Richard as he disappeared around the dump. Then he heard him scream. He ran full pelt towards the sound and skidded to a stop when he saw Richard struggling in the hands of two Indian men. Instinctively he raised his gun to his shoulder and said ‘Hands Up’. Unbelievably everyone froze. Then he recognised one of the men. It was ‘The Monkey Man’.
The look of fearful, recognition must have triggered off the reaction of The Monkey Man, who roughly pushed Richard towards the other man and in two quick steps, was upon Noel, grabbing him by his collar and wrenching the daisy out of his hands. Noel started screaming and promptly got a sharp slap across his face. ‘Choup’ barked The Monkey Man, raising his hand threateningly. Everything went quiet.
Suddenly a shout and a loud blast on a whistle. A Punjabi watchman was striding towards them waving his ‘lathi’ in the air. The Monkey Man and his sidekick picked up the boy’s guns and their loaded gunny sacks, grabbed the two lads by their wrists and started running for the trees. It looked as if they knew where they were going, because they ran deep into the woods. After about ten minutes, they came to a small clearing, where they stopped. They threw the two boys to the ground and sat down, all of them trying to catch their breath.
Back at the Quartz dump the Punjabi watchman didn’t know what to do. If he left his watch tower, to go to the mine, to report what he saw, he would probably get the sack, but he saw the thieves grabbing the boys and dragging the two of them into the woods and felt he must tell someone. He decided to wait until his shift was over, to report what he saw, which would be in about three hours. His decision was to prove critical
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Oy Vey Intense!
Written by domestic engineer on 2008-02-25 07:01:49
Intense second chapter! Wasnt expecting that! A good thriller this has turned out to be! Ugh, I want to turn the page and read on to see what happens next but I cant!
Hurry up and post the next one! 
Just one question...what is a Quartz Dump? Kinda funny how we used to call those harmless little Iguanas "Bloodsuckers"! Then again we call a little white Gecko a Flycatcher when actually a Flycatcher is the name of a bird!
Sorry went off the subject! Exciting 2nd chapter Ernest! |
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