7
As evening fell, Echo reappeared. He flew awkwardly, a smartphone clutched tightly in his talons.
I leaped up and snatched it from him, overjoyed.
“The passcode,” he panted, making a series of swiping motions with his wing. “Like this, then this, then this. I watched her do it all day.”
Good boy!
I excitedly powered on the screen. A monkey’s fingers weren’t the most dexterous, but they got the job done.
The screen lit up, displaying a lock screen photo of a face I knew all too well.
Isabelle.
I froze. Of all the phones in the world, he had to steal Isabelle’s?
Before I could process it, a shriek came from outside the enclosure. “My phone! That parrot stole my phone! Security! Get it back for me!”
She had chased him all the way to Monkey Mountain. When she saw me holding her phone, her rage intensified. “It’s that damn monkey again!
She has my phone! Security! Get over here now!”
Two keepers came running. When they saw the situation, they grabbed their long poles and started toward me.
My eye twitched. That stupid bird. Did he have to be so picky?
The keepers were closing in. I had to act fast. My fingers fumbled, but I managed to type out a quick text to my mother. Her number was seared
into my brain, a painful relic from the age of fifteen until now.
My clumsy monkey fingers struggled with the tiny keyboard. I finally managed a few words: [Mom, check under Stella’s mattress】
I didn’t even have time for punctuation. The keeper’s pole was inches away.
I hit send and hurled the phone into the neighboring enclosure.
“Flingo! Smash it!”
Flingo caught the phone and brought his massive fist down on it with a single, brutal crunch.
The phone shattered into a million pieces.
The keepers stared, dumbfounded.
Isabelle was practically spewing smoke. “You dead monkey! I’m going to kill you!”
Oh, don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you.
I let out a sharp cry to my neighbor.
Flingb, who had been beating his chest, simply reached behind him, popped his hip, and pfft–a fresh turd materialized in his palm.
The next second, a brown missile flew through the air. Once again, Isabelle got a face full of crap.
