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And it didn’t look away

Although I wasn’t betrayed by eyeshine, as theas lare was dilimmers of its own fiery scrutiny returned to it, wasn’t sure that it saw anything at all, but re ht stare fall upon my unreflective lids But I was afraid that I would miss its sudden blink of comprehension and would fail to shoot it before it launched itself in at un hand or cliaze at this close range, with such intensity, I was surprised that my fear and thick revulsion could coexist with a ht this new species into existence, sorrow over the hideous oncoiven us, wonder at the inhue eyes Bleak despair, too And loneliness And yet…an irrational wild hope

Standing in my line of fire, unaware that it was vulnerably exposed to an eun, the creature burbled softly, eon than a rhesus The sound had an inquisitive quality

One of the other monkeys shrieked

I almost fired the Glock reflexively

Two additional voices scolded the first

In front of me, the monkey spun away from the broom closet It scampered deeper into the kitchen, drawn by the commotion

In fact, the uproar indicated that all six were now gathered at the farther end of the roo eyes turned inof interest I could iine only that it was the source of the putrid odor

As I eased up on the trigger, I realized that a glutinous mass had risen into my throat--et it down and to be able to breathe again

While my eyes and the monkey’s had been locked, I’d fallen into a curious physical detachment so complete that I had ceased to feel the spasony returned, worse than before

Because all thenoise, I exercised the craht firmly back and forth from heel to toe of my left foot This h to ensure that I would be able to racefully if one of thean to jabber in louder voices They were excited Although I don’t believe they have a language in rerowls and warbles were obviously arguotten what they had co for in the first place Easily distracted, quick to fall into disorganization, prone to put asidetheuys seeer I listened to theet out of this bungalow alive

I was still rockingmy calf, when one of the quarrelers broke away from the rest of the search party and crossed the kitchen to the dining-roo and pretended to be a broo-roo to otheroutside on the front porch or searching the bedroorew nearer

The prospect of sharing this small kitchen with even more monkeys--possibly with the entire troop--punctured my half-inflated hope of survival As ave way to confident desperation, I examined my options and found no new ones

The depth of my desperation was so abyssal that I actually asked myself what the immortal Jackie Chan would do in a situation like this The ansas simple: Jackie would erupt out of the broom closet with an athletic leap that landed him in the very midst of the search party, drop-kick one of thes, karate-chop two of theet off a cool one-liner, break the ar pirouette of flashing fists and feet, execute a series of char and hilarious rubber-faced expressions the likes of which no one has seen since the days of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, tap-dance across the heads of the reh theabove the sink, and flee to safety Jackie Chan never gets calf cramps

Meanwhile,

Moreas they ca critter was the ideal occasion to call in all the relatives, open a keg of beer, and have a hootenanny

I couldn’t discern how inal six searchers Maybe two Maybe four Not more than five or six

Too many

None of the newcomers showed the least interest in my corner of the roo ument continued

My luck wouldn’t hold At any ht decide to finish their inspection of the cabinets The individual that had nearly discoveredodd in this vicinity

I considered slipping out of the brooh the doorway, and taking refuge in a corner of the dining rooet Before they had entered the kitchen, the first squad of searchersin that chaain

With my cramp, I couldn’t move fast, but I could still rely on the cover of darkness, er, ht that I’d implode

Just as I convinced myself that I had topile they had gathered to discuss, returning to the dining-roo for yet additional members of the troop to come here and sniff the vile re of the crowd clustered around the dead thing, I could hear an answering cry froinally less noisy than a hts would coht Zone moment Maybe Christopher Snoasn’t my current identity but merely the name under which I had lived in a previous life, and noas one of them, reincarnated as a rhesus Maybe eren’t in a Dead Town bungalow but were in a giant cage, surrounded by people pointing and laughing as ung froh I had telow arose toward the front of the house I are of it, at first, solely because the an to resolve out of the blackness, the way an iradually solidifies on Polaroid film

This development didn’t alarm or even surprise the beast, so I assuuine about these changing circumstances as the monkey appeared to be The shroud of darkness in which I’d been hiding was going to be stripped away