how to make monkeys walk

i have a nice story to tell about little clear plastic monkeys.

the first time k visited me in Portland was a very wonderful two weeks packed with good memories and little adventures. i felt like magic had returned into my life, like i was back on a little stepping stone path down a burbling river of natural wonder. one day k and i and my friend bits went out for a stroll around downtown Portland. we had quite a bit of coffee and i was already festooned by k with squiggly patterns on my hands and wrists, a feather and flower clipped to my shirt pocket, and paperclip necklace (slide one paperclip to link with another. repeat until you think you have a good enough length to fit around someone's neck. attach the ends. drape around someone.). i have rather long hair and it kept getting caught in some strands but i really didn't mind.

we eventually found ourselves at a toy store, and went in with the purpose of looking for a new Sanrio Hello Kitty purse for k. we played with the various toys: animal puppets, kaleidescopes (take two and hold to each eye while turning to see from a chameleon bug's eye view), windup robots and hoppy frogs, tops, rubber snakes and bugs and rats and spiders, cupping hands to see glowinthedark things go green (or tuck head under shirt), building ruined things with Lego, salivating at chocolate eyeballs. k found a large jar of clear plastic monkeys colored red, blue, green and yelloworangy. she hooked them by their long curled tails on the paperclip necklace. they seemed to like it there.

i decided to step outside for a smoke while k and bits bought their toys. just as i walked out lighting up, my old friend Crit was walking up the street and we stood and said each other's names to each other. we hadn't seen each other since way back when in Santa Cruz! probably been over five years! I'd heard he was in the area, but had no idea how to reach him. it turned out that he lived just one or two blocks from where i used to live in southeast Portland six months before. what a pleasant surprise! we caught up on a few things and he and his girlfriend and k and bits and i went out for more coffee.

for the rest of the afternoon, no matter how far we walked, the monkeys stayed on the paperclip necklace. now and then i had to unhook the clips from tangled hairs and i finally noticed that the monkeys always seemed to be in different places on the necklace. i made a mental note of their position, and the next time i checked... yes! they were walking up and down the necklace from the movements of my walking and the swinging of the chain. some moved faster than others, switching ahead of another. No one beleived me when i told them until i pointed out later on how they had moved from where they were before.

that evening, a couple of the monkeys said their goodbyes... the red one was the first. i picked it up from the ground the first few times it jumped off, but finally it took off for who knows where. i gave away others, but kept the blue one. it seemed to move up and down the chain the most, and never fell off. k had been inspired to make the necklace because she noticed a MOO friend, Wellsie, had made me a text version to wear. when she returned to the UK, she made me a 'virtual text' blue plastic monkey, which whispered sweet nothings that only i could hear when i held it.

like i said, i felt magic had returned. two great things coincidently happening... remeeting an old friend right out of the blue, and the great procession of monkeys.