Moonpie

It's been 9 years since he passed away. The love of my life vanished into the other world. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. It's just that we were meant to be together but God took him away from me through nature. I would still read his poems whenever I miss him the most. He would call me “moonpie” in his poems.

I relocated to a different city after the incident because there were too much of his memories. I got married after three years to my husband who was the animal caretaker specialist at his father's sanctuary. I decided to drop my desk work and started to help him out as I loved working with animals. It was the best times until that day.

Midweek of May there was an attack on the sanctuary by the poachers. Our sanctuary was not properly guarded very well as it was privately owned and was vulnerable to attacks like these. Hence, we had very little protection, a few armed guards at the front gates and inside the sanctuary was all we got. The poachers underestimated the sanctuary and were poorly armed. Little did they knew that every staff considers each animal as their family members. The poachers were caught by surprise when the staff members started attacking the poachers from behind. I encountered a poacher on my way. When he was about to draw his pistol from the holster, I engaged in hand-to-hand combat with him. My husband taught me some martial arts for these situations. He was too strong for me and kicked me into the ground. I saw in disbelief as he aimed his pistol towards me. One of the gorillas came to my rescue. Bingo rushed onto him and scared him away. Gorillas have a sense of protective environment and saw the poachers as a threat. Bingo signalled the other gorillas and his closest cousin monkeys to attack the poachers. The poachers fled with whatever animals they had in captivity. The poachers were eventually caught by the police after fleeing for a few miles. Bingo fell to the ground as I saw a knife cut on his back.

I later found out by watching the security camera that during the attack the Bingo escaped from his cage, searched for me and defended the sanctuary. Even though Bingo is a young adult, he did more than his age. At first, I thought it was because of his protective nature towards his family and the sanctuary. I was there most of the times during his childhood, taking care of him. However, the reason for him to protect me was entirely different and it came to light after three months.

90 days after the attack passed and everything went back to normal. We started to educate the gorillas and their closest cousins by teaching them sign language and how to draw. The gorillas started to use their drawing skills and show us what it wanted. A gorilla would draw a bark or stem and point at its mouth if it is hungry. If it wants a ball to play, a gorilla would draw a ball and bumps its first. During lunch time I gave Bingo chalk for him to draw what he wanted. Bingo drew two round shape items and dotted it all over. I misunderstood it for coconuts and gave him two coconuts. He received the coconut from my hand and kept it on the ground and sadly went towards the corner and sat. I was perplexed why he is not eating as he is one of the gorillas with a huge appetite. He also was the most chirpy gorilla in the sanctuary. I had a close look at the drawing and I suddenly realised. The first circle represented a moon and the second circle represented a pie. Bingo was asking for moonpie.