Willie and Loretta spent the afternoon visiting the park arboretum and museums. They wandered toward an aging fountain in the Park Mercado, where a small crowd gathered.
A hand-painted sign read, “Giuseppe and Constantine.” Giuseppe, tired-looking and bow-legged, slowly wound the organ handle with a wrinkled, bony hand. Constantine, his wide-eyed Capuchin monkey scooted along the front row of spectators on a long chain.
The monkey flashed the crowd an endearing, toothy smile. People threw in change and dollar bills into its pill box hat.
“Look Willie, how cute,” Loretta said. “He makes faces just like a person.”
“Yeah, but look at the cash,” Willie said nodding toward a tip box at the grinder’s feet. “I’ll bet the old fart drives his monkey home at night in a Mercedes and lives in a mansion.”
Constantine’s mischievous antics delighted the dwindling late afternoon crowd. He ran along the front row as though looking up at their faces. When the monkey suddenly snatched Willie’s wallet the applause and appreciative laughter turned tentative.
Giuseppe stopped the organ and grunted a few commands. Constantine returned the wallet and glanced at Willie before scooting across the sidewalk. It climbed onto Giuseppe’s shoulder and chattered in his ear.
“I ‘m sorry folks,” he said, feeding the monkey a piece of banana, “but Constantine says he’s tired, so I gotta take him home.”
After packing his equipment on a small wagon the organ grinder removed the longer chain. Before he could attach a shorter one Constantine jumped to the ground, and scampered into the crowd. Panicking parents swept their children into their arms.
Willie grabbed Constantine by the tail as it ran past. The monkey wheeled around and sunk his teeth into the loose skin between Willie’s thumb and forefinger.
“Ouch! Let go!” Willie hollered, trying to shake the monkey free. Then, he grabbed its throat with his other hand. Willie tightened the grip on Constantine’s neck, and held on until Giuseppe ran over. The organ grinder attached the chain to its collar and Constantine climbed up onto his master’s shoulder. The monkey screeched at Willie and flashed its mischievous smile. The animal slid a hand behind the grinder’s neck.
“Thank you,” the old man said in a flat monotone. “Let me see your hand; did he draw blood?”
“It’s not too bad.”
Willie held up his hand, and Giuseppe inspected it. Constantine’s teeth had
punched through the webbing in several places.
“Please, you go to the doctor and then bring me the bill,” Giuseppe giving him a card. “I am very sorry. Constantine is good monkey. He doesn’t usually do this.”
After examining and cleaning Willie’s hand the urgent care doctor gave him a tetanus shot. When the bill arrived a week later however, Willie stared at the five hundred dollars in charges, and shook his head.
“I’m glad I’m not paying this. I’m going to take the bill to the organ grinder.”
“Willie.” Loretta said, “You better go see the doctor first. Just to make sure you don’t have an infection.”
“Nah, don’t worry. Everything will be fine. It’s not even red anymore.”
A few days later, Willie drove to the address on the card. As he pulled to a stop, the dilapidated house and weed strewn yard surprised him. There was no Mercedes and he certainly did not live in a mansion. After double checking the address, Willie knocked on the screen door.
“Hello, anybody here?” he hollered.
“Come in! It’s open,” someone yelled from inside.
Upon stepping inside the darkened room Willie gagged from a sickly odor resembling a zoo pen. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed food, dirty clothes and animal feces scattered all over.
“I just stopped by to drop off the doctor bill,” he said. “You remember, after your monkey bit me in the park several weeks ago.”
“I was wondering when you’d finally get here.”
Willie spotted Giuseppe’s frail form in a chair across the room. He was outlined in the dim light from a filmy, yellowed window with Constantine sitting on his shoulder. When Willie approached, the monkey jumped from the old man’s shoulder and scampered into the dark.
“I would have come sooner, but I wanted to make sure there was no infection.”
When Giuseppe didn’t reply, Willie leaned forward, thinking he might not have heard him. He bumped Giuseppe’s leg, and the old man’s decaying corpse fell forward. As Willie jumped back startled, he spotted a hole punched through the back of his skull.
“Giuseppe was old and tired,” a voice in the darkness resembling Giuseppe’s said, “You know, he was your age when I chose him as a master.”
Constantine suddenly sprang from the darkness, wild-eyed and screeching. Before Willie could react, the monkey landed on his back, and jammed its hand into the base of his skull. Willie stood rigid with an expressionless stare. Then he jerked for several seconds and stopped with his arms hanging limp.
The monkey peeled back the tip of its tail like a banana. He inserted it into the hole punched in Willie’s skull, and an umbilical-like cord of fibrous nerves emerged/ They snaked their way along the segmental rifts of Willie’s brain, and imbedded themselves in the gray and white matter axons. Sparking synapses erased Willie’s memory.
Constantine then guided Willie across the room and stood him hunched over in front the organ. Willie slowly began to crank it while Constantine set the timer on a tripod mounted camera. The monkey perched on Willie’s shoulder with a mischievous grin as the flash lit up the room.
Framed photos of a smiling Constantine perched on the shoulders of organ grinders from different eras, sat on the fireplace mantle. An empty space on the end awaited Willie’s photo.
_______________________
©2011 Hal Kempka
Hal Kempka, a former marine who lives in California, has been published in numerous magazines and ezines including : Flashes in the Dark, House of Horror UK, Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising, Dark Valentine, Dark and Dreary, Night to Dawn, Sex and Murder, Thrillers Killers and Chillers, The New Flesh, and Twisted Dreams, among others. Anthology credits include Pill Hill Press, Blood Bound Books, and Post Mortem Press.
Tags: Hal Kempka
April 24th, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Okay! That was so creepy! Wish that I had not read it at 11:40 p.m. Knew something was about to go wrong for Willie but did guess that fate for him. Good story!