Stephen-King---The-Monkey

The Monkey
"Dennis, shut up"
Dennis blinked and for a moment looked almost uneasy. Hal hadn't spoken to him so sharply in a tong
time. Not since he had lost his job with National Aerodyne in California two years before and they had
moved to Texas. Dennis decided not to push it ... for now. He turned back to the Ralston-Purina canon
and began to root through it again, but the other stuff was nothing but junk. Broken toys bleeding
springs and stuffings.
The wind was louder now, hooting instead of whistling. The attic began to creak softly, making a noise
like footsteps.
"Please· Daddy'?" Petey asked, only loud enough for his father to hear.
"Yeah," he said. "Terry, let's go."
"I'm not through with this "
"I said let's go."
It was her turn to look startled.
They had taken two adjoining rooms in a motel. By ten that night the boys were asleep in their room and
Terry was asleep in the adults' room. She had taken two Valiums on the ride back from the home place
in Casco. To keep her nerves from giving her a migraine. Just lately she took a lot of Valium. It had
started around the time National Aerodyne had laid Hal off. For the last two years he had been working
for Texas Instruments it was $4,000 less a year, but it was work. He told Terry they were lucky. She
agreed. There were plenty of software architects drawing unemployment, he said. She agreed. The
company housing in Arnette was every bit as good as the place in Fresno, he said. She agreed, but he
thought her agreement to all of it was a lie.
And he was losing Dennis. He could feel the kid going, achieving a premature escape velocity, so long,
Dennis, bye-bye stranger, it was nice sharing this train with you. Terry said she thought the boy was
smoking reefer. She smelled it sometimes. You have to talk to him, Hal. And he agreed, but so far he
had not.
The boys were asleep. Terry was asleep. Hal went into the bathroom and locked the door and sat down
on the closed lid of the john and looked at the monkey.
He hated the way it felt, that soft brown nappy fur, worn bald in spots. He hated its grin. that monkey
grins just like a nigger, Uncle Will had said once, but it didn't grin like a nigger or like anything human.
Its grin was all teeth, and if you wound up the key. the lips would move. the teeth would seem to get
bigger, to become vampire teeth, the lips would writhe and the cymbals would bang, stupid monkey,
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