Week 11 Storytelling: Little Hector and the Monkeys

Hector was a little pig who had an interesting life of great adventure and crazy shenanigans. His life was probably more exciting than most, I would say. Hector had lived with many people throughout his life. Instead of finding another person to look after him after his last owner, Arjuna, died, Hector decided to mix it up and go off into the jungle alone. Hector survived a long exile with Arjuna before, so Hector knew how to survive in the jungle.

When Hector was strolling in the jungle one day, he found a habitat of monkeys. At first Hector was terrified the monkeys were going to try and harm him, but the monkeys did the opposite. In fact, the monkeys took Hector to be their leader as the Great Advisor. The monkey colony took care of Hector by always making sure he was well fed and safe. The monkeys' home was a giant apple tree. This was no normal apple tree. The apples were the biggest apples in all the world and the tastiest apples you ever ate. This tree was so large that the trunk was a mile in diameter. The monkeys made little huts for their families in the large branches. This was perfect for the group of monkeys to store food and live close together for protection. Obviously little Hector could not climb the tree like the monkeys could, so the monkeys would lift Hector up to where all the monkey huts were scattered. The monkeys also made Hector his own little hut and had miniature bridges built perfect for Hector’s size, so he could get to places within the tree.

Since Hector had seen many things in his many miniature pig years, he was very wise, and all the monkeys sought Hector for words of wisdom. One day, he said to the monkeys, “Do not let a single fruit fall into the river, for down the river lies danger.”

The monkeys were not sure what Hector meant by his words, but they loved Hector and knew he was wiser than any creature they met. Listening to Hector, the monkeys made sure that no fruit fell into the river.

 There was a great game amongst the monkeys called the Banana Battle. The monkeys would go into the jungle and see who could find the most bananas. The monkey with the most bananas would be the winner. The prize for the most bananas was to get to have dinner with Hector. This was a grand prize because Hector was always so busy with sharing his wisdom. He would eat alone to give himself some quiet time.

On the day of the Banana Battle, everyone was scavenging for some bananas away from the tree in the jungle. No one seemed to notice that a single apple fell into the river…

Down the river was a woman. She was walking home when she noticed a beautiful apple washed up on the shore. She looked around to see if anyone was around. She quickly walked over to it and picked it up. This was no ordinary apple. This was the most gorgeous-looking apple she had ever seen. She was very hungry from such a long walk. She did not know if she should eat it or not for she did not know where it came from. But this apple looked so tempting and so delicious. She could not resist… (Jumanji music playing in the background)

Woman with apple in hand

Author’s Note: I really enjoyed writing this story. My inspiration was the Monkey-Bridge in Twenty Jataka Tales by Inayat. The Twenty Jataka Tales is a collection of past lives of Buddha. I veered off of Monkey-Bridge significantly. In the original story, there was a giant monkey king that told the group to never let the fruit fall from a great fruit tree into the river. Eventually, a fruit fell into the river and a fisherman found it. A search team went and found the fruit tree and planned to kill the monkeys to get the delicious fruit. The monkey king saved his group of monkeys by letting them climb on his back to another tree via his back and a long reed. One of the monkeys broke his back while climbing to safety. I only told the first half of the story in hopes of coming out with a second half of the story next. I changed the original story to include my friend Hector the miniature pig. I also claimed the fruit to be an apple. In the original story all that was said was a fruit tree, but I wanted to make it less vague in hopes that it would be easier for the reader to picture the story unfolding in their head.

The Monkey-Bridge, Twenty Jataka Tales by Inayat, 1939