One fine day, while standing on the shore of the great lake, Latawata, admiring the view, I was struck by a powerful gust of wind, probably around a hundred kilometers per hour or more, that carried me for quite a while before I was deposited, all willy-nilly, on the forbidden Glodrot Island, believed to be home to the scary Red Tings, a lost tribe of monkeys.
When I came to my senses, I looked around with trepidation. We've all heard the stories, usually late at night and better if the moon is full or there's a thunderstorm, about the Red Tings, the famous lost monkeys of Glodrot Island, and now here I was, in person, on Glodrot Island. The forbidden Glodrot Island, if memory serves. I wondered if the wind might possibly carry me back to the shore but the air was now suspiciously still.
I was becoming quite worried, thinking about how I was stranded on the forbidden Glodrot Island with fearsome Red Tings ready to pounce, so I began looking for hiding places. The rocky beach I was standing on offered nothing beyond the size of a pebble. Immediately inland were scrubby bushes and a low berm, then some rolling dunes with long grasses growing from them. Not too much further was impenetrable jungle. I walked toward the jungle.
When I got to the jungle, I stopped, for it appeared to be a solid green wall. You couldn't see a centimeter into it. As I reached up to touch it, I heard a creaking sound, then saw a rectangle shaped panel, like a door of solid green, opening outward near to where I stood, staring transfixed. A furry red head, with bright blue eyes, slowly emerged and upon seeing me screamed and ducked back inside, promptly slamming the door shut. I scratched my head. This didn't jibe with the stories I'd heard at all, not even a little.
Feeling a spurt of anger over the discrepancy I walked over and knocked on where I thought the door was.
From behind the wall a voice could be heard, “There's no one home! Go away!”
“Hey!” I yelled, “Look! I got blown here by a sudden gust of wind and now I'm stranded. I sure didn't want to come here.” There was silence. I knocked some more but still, just silence so I sat down, leaning my back against the door, pretty sure.
I sat for quite a while, then I must have dozed because I was awakened by the door pushing my back. It stopped, then started again, more insistent, pushing stronger. I stood and moved out of the way and it flew open. I got near, staying close to the wall, as a furry red head appeared with blue eyes that went round at seeing me and screamed, pulling the door shut, except this time I had my foot in it. The creature ran off, screaming the entire way, as I cautiously opened the door wider and stepped through.
Inside was a nicely paved highway with two lanes and a white line down the middle. I could see the creature bounding down the highway and screaming. Leaning against the green wall on this side was a curious bicycle. It was decidedly built for someone of a much different body shape than mine but I managed to get on it and pedal well enough to travel. Soon, growing accustomed to the bicycle's peculiarities, I was fairly flying down the road.
There were nicely tended farms on either side but never any sign of anybody tending them. In fact, the entire place seemed deserted. I came to a forest, not a jungle, and the road continued through, until I came to a town, only it seemed deserted too. I stopped to look around, see if I could figure out what was going on.
“Hello!” I called out, “Anybody home?”
“No, no one home,” a voice somewhere behind me answered.
A closer voice continued. “No one at all, so you might as well leave. Perhaps someone will be home tomorrow or more likely next month or could be never, could be never gonna be anyone home again ever. Could be.”
Another voice whispered loudly, “Hush Agar! You chatter too much.” Then with more volume, “It is true. We are not home. None of us , so go ahead and leave. Return to your own empty home. Nothing to see here.”
The voices were coming from behind a door of the house in front of me, so I strode up the walk and rapped on the door. Silence. I reached over, twisted the knob and pushed the door open. There stood a terrified furry creature, bright red with blue eyes, staring at me and screaming. There were many more in the room beyond. All round eyed and screaming.
“Quiet!” I yelled. “I won't hurt you.”
The creatures stopped screaming and the one at the door looked suspiciously at me and asked, “You won't?”
“No! Why should I? I'm stranded and scared. I'm worried that the monstrous Red . . .” I stopped speaking and looked closer at the creature. It was furry and bright red. Hmmm. It could, in fact, it very well could, be a monkey. I realized in a flash that I was face to face with a Red Ting. And it was afraid of me.
“Are you a Red Ting?” I asked.
“Harumph!” it snorted. “Red Ting, I dunno this. We're the legendary Umpalumpa Monkeys.”
I'd never heard of them. “I, uh, well, uh,” I sputtered.
“Yes, me too,” it said, looking oddly at me. There was a long moment of silence. “We're afraid of each other, aren't we?” it finally asked.
“That would seem to be the case,” I answered, feeling foolish.
“Why is that?” it asked, becoming less tense. All the monkeys in the room behind calmed down and resumed their normal monkey lives. Suddenly the street behind me was crowded with traffic, horns were honking and monkeys were scurrying to and fro.
“Because of what I've heard,” I told it. “We heard that the Red Ting's, that you, were a lost race of monkeys on the forbidden, you can see how that sounds, can't you? The forbidden Glodrot Island, the very island on which we stand!” It looked at me oddly.
“That's exactly what we heard about you,” he stated with a scowl. “That you lived on the forbidden Glodrot Island and that you were a tribe of lost elves called Green Tings.” I was getting suspicious, and angry.
“So you call us Green Tings?” I asked. That name sounded rude.
He looked sternly at me, “You call us Red Tings?”
I think we were on the verge of smacking each other when suddenly a strong gust of wind, probably a hundred kilometers per hour or more, hit me and carried me for quite a ways then dropped me all willy-nilly on a rocky beach. When I came to my senses, I realized I was back on the beach where I started, on the exact spot in fact, looking out over the beautiful lake Latawata with the mysterious forbidden Glodrot Island a mere dot in the far distance.