Territory - Part 3: Lazy Lu

 

Christmas and New Year in Belgium. It is always a wonderful, busy time. Meeting friends and family, eating good food, laughing, reconnecting in conversations while walking. And telling stories.

Stories about monkeys and leopard soft toys, for instance (see Territory 2). At many a table, theories were built about nature and nurture, about instinct or learnt behaviour. People shared pictures of leopard decorations, leopard-patterned clothes, leopard shoes and handbags.

Then it was New Year’s day, time for the traditional new year’s wishes and exchange of presents. My godchild gave me a fairly impressive box. Not heavy, but bulky. Out came a leopard. A beautiful plush imitation of the real thing.

And so I left Belgium, with a leopard - since been named Lazy Lu -in my suitcase.

During my first week back it rained all the time. So Lazy Lu stayed inside. He is far too beautiful to get soaked, isn't he? Besides, those monkeys don't show themselves when it rains. They sit on branches in trees, looking miserable. But then one day towards dusk it suddenly cleared up. I heard and saw the monkeys in the trees in the garden. Some were sitting in the tree next to my terrace, just a few steps away, ready to jump over. I got Lazy Lu and put him on the terrace table. What happened next is hard to describe.  The monkeys in the trees jumped back and forth, the tasks swung. There was shouting. I heard a new sound. Something I had never heard before, a kind of chirping and clacking. I suppose in monkey language it means ‘watch out, a leopard’. The monkeys in the tree next to the terrace, swiftly made their way up the drainpipe of the neighbour's building onto the roof. They remained vigilant on the edge of the roof. After the initial panic that had created a jumble of movement and noise, silence fell. Monkeys sat everywhere with their gaze fixed tightly on Lazy Lu. The cry of alarm was repeated, regularly, until darkness fell and I brought the leopard back inside.

Meanwhile, two weeks later. I can tell by the one tomato still hanging on the plant and by the length of my chives that the monkeys haven't been here for a while. The petunias are doing well.

Lazy Lu is watching.