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Earl!’ I said.
    ‘Exactly. So get this. Pop took me back to the circus the next year and Fingers Filipinski was still there, but he had gone solo. There was no monkey. The show had lost its magic and charm without Earl. Fingers looked washed up. After the show, Pop asked him where the monkey was, but he just shook his head sadly. I did a little research on the Internet last night and discovered that it was one year before the Pan Universal Exploration Corporation blasted their seventh rocket into space — the rocket Earl was on.’
    ‘It’s the same Earl!’ Serenity said.
    ‘Bingo!’ Dad answered. ‘Give the little lady a prize.’

Boxing

    D ad figured that someone from PUXCorp had stolen Earl from Fingers Filipinski, all those years ago, and that Fingers had never found out what had happened to him. The public never knew there was a monkey in the rocket because it had been kept top secret.
    I discovered that lots of different creatures from different countries had been sent into space over the years. There were flies, spiders, worms, snails, frogs, newts, fish, tortoises, mice, rats, cats,dogs and other monkeys and chimps. A lot of them had names. But there was no mention of Earl.

    Three weeks crept by before Chase Craven left One Pebble Bay and it was safe to see Earl again. I spent my quiet moments daydreaming about the intense astronaut training schedule Earl must have been put through and the mad things he would’ve seen on his incredible journey. Every night I played
Outer Extremity
alone in my room until Mum came and told me to go to bed.Despite the huge number of hours I racked up on the game, I only reached level nine. Reaching level twenty-seven was probably one of the easiest things Earl had ever done.
    Even though he was a genius and had a good memory, I was still worried that Earl might have forgotten me.
    ‘Don’t be silly,’ Mum said on the drive to Sam Hurley’s place. ‘You saved his life from Bagpipes, remember?’
    ‘Not really,’ I said. ‘Earl could’ve thrashed Bagpipes in a fight.’
    ‘Either way it would have been unpleasant to clean up,’ Dad said. ‘And Elsie would have been inconsolable if she lost Bagpipes.’
    ‘I still think she’s a secret agent for PUXCorp,’ I said.
    ‘Without a doubt,’ Dad humoured me. ‘And that toilet dolly in our bathroom is actually a high-tech listening device.’ Mum and Serenity thought that was hilarious, even though it was just as likely as all of the other crazy things that had been happening.
    When Sam heard us approaching he came out to meet us, with Earl sitting on his back. I instantly felt jealous. Earl had been with me for only three days but he had been with Sam for three weeks. They looked like old friends.
    ‘Does Earl belong to you now?’ I blurted out, straightaway.
    ‘Of course not, Avery,’ Sam said. ‘Nobody owns Earl. He’s very much his own monkey.’
    ‘Apologise to Sam,’ Mum said. ‘He’s been very kind to look after Earl.’
    ‘Sorry,’ I said looking down at the ground. My face was burning.
    ‘Aren’t you going to say hello to your mate now?’ Sam asked.
    ‘Hi,’ I said, without looking at Earl. ‘I missed you.’
    ‘Ee Ee Ee!’ Earl said. He jumped onto me and gave my ears a good boxing.
    ‘See, he still loves you,’ Dad said.
    ‘What about me?’ Serenity pouted.
    Earl climbed onto her and kissed her right on the mouth.
    ‘Eww, that was so vile,’ Serenity said, pushing Earl away and wiping her mouth.
    ‘At least he didn’t use tongue,’ I said.
    ‘He did!’ Serenity cried.
    Everybody laughed, but I was the only one who caught Earl’s sly wink.

About the author/illustrator
    The idea for
Monkey Come Home
came from a bunch of funny and true encounters my friends and I have had with monkeys over the years. My favourite story belongs to Wendy who went to the monkey show at Koh Samui, Thailand with her friend Philipa. After the show, the audience were allowed to touch the monkeys.