I have been spending a lot of time in the grungle enclosure lately. That is where I like to go when I need time to think. Maria was upset with me for helping Jose to hide from her, and also for doing his paperwork for him. I was upset at myself, too. I do not know why I let Jose give me his work all the time. It only ends in frustration. I always tell myself that next time I will say “no”, but when he asks again, I always say “yes”.
The grungles do not have these problems. They are simple. They like to eat and play games and hang in the trees. They do not have to worry about friends being angry with them. If a grungle upsets another grungle, they will act upset for a short time, but then one will start a game and it will be like nothing negative happened.
Grungles play a lot of games that small human children play. They play hide and seek. They have fun jumping out to scare each other or a passing caretaker like myself. They seem to especially like simple percussion instruments like drums and shakers. We need to replace the instruments often. The grungles do not understand that the instruments can break. They will take them into the trees in their enclosure, some of which are 30 feet tall. A shaker does not survive many falls from that height.
Recently, I brought a new box of shakers into the enclosure. When the grungles saw me with a box, they all came down from the trees and jumped all over me, causing me to trip and drop the box. All the grungles jumped off of me, picked up as many of the shakers as they could, and returned to the trees. I stayed on the ground, watching them in the trees as they playfully fought over the new toys. One grungle managed to take a shaker away from another. I watched as it threw the shaker into the air and jumped after it. The grungle caught the shaker in the air, but missed the branch it was aiming for. It slid down the trunk of the tree and landed awkwardly at the bottom.
Sometimes a grungle will act like an injury is worse than it is to get attention from a caretaker. Knowing this, I continued to focus my attention on the tops of the trees, but I kept the grungle that had fallen at the edge of my field of vision and waited for it to climb up again. It did not climb up. Instead, it crawled to a corner of the enclosure and sat there, tapping the shaker it had worked so hard to get. As it crawled away I noticed one of its feet dragging. I hoped it had not injured it badly.
The grungles were starting to calm down again. The initial excitement over new toys does not last long. I left the enclosure and returned with buckets full of the live grubs and beetles that we feed the grungles. My entrance with the buckets caused all the grungles to jump on me again. I set the buckets down and backed away, looking to the corner where the injured grungle still sat. It showed no interest in the food, which worried me.
Leaving the other grungles to their meal, I slowly approached the injured one. It turned its back to me, purposely making it difficult for me to see the injured foot. I picked it up, ignoring its complaints, and gently checked that the injured foot was not broken.The problem was actually a sprained ankle. It would just need time to heal.
I spent the next three days almost entirely in the grungle enclosure. At first, the injured grungle would not accept any food and would turn away from me when I tried to engage it in a game. I tried to get the other grungles to start a game with the injured one but it ignored them too and they eventually got bored and returned to the trees. But I did not give up. I brought a small bowl of food over to the corner whenever I brought in the food buckets and I continued to try and engage it in games, but I continued to be ignored.
Grungles are normally very active. I thought that maybe it did not know how to play with an injured ankle. So I set out to teach the grungles a new game. Since the injured grungle would not engage, I brought another grungle to the corner and showed it how to play catch with a shaker. We were both sitting, throwing the shaker back and forth, when the injured grungle threw the shaker it had been clutching for three days at me. I was momentarily surprised. The injured grungle howled at me impatiently. I picked up the shaker it had thrown and threw it back. Suddenly we were playing a three way game of catch with 2 shakers. Before long, the other grungles brought their shakers down from the trees to join in the game.
Tonight, when I brought the food buckets in, the injured grungle limped over to eat with the other grungles. It will likely be a few days before it is comfortable climbing again, but otherwise it seems to be back to normal. The other grungles seem willing to play on the ground for now, and it seems they have discovered “monkey in the middle” on their own.
That grungle reminded me of why I work here, at the Cryptidery. It reminded me that I am good at my job, even if Maria is sometimes upset. I decided that I would try to do better. That I would put all my efforts into my research and the creatures in my care, and that I would not let Jose distract me. That next time he asked me to do his paper work, or to help him hide something from Maria, I would say “no” because I have more important things to do. I felt at peace with this decision. I spent some time watching the grungles play their new games before deciding to go get some of my own paper work done.
When I left the enclosure, Jose was standing in the hallway. He looked like he was going to ask me to do something. I reminded myself, as I walked towards him, that this time I would say “no”.
Jose held out some papers. He said he had forgotten to give me the expenses for his trip, which Maria needs us to keep records of for tax purposes.
“I am far too busy with my own work to be doing yours as well. It will take you no more than ten minutes. Do it yourself.” Is what I said in my head as I took the papers from him. As I looked through them quickly to be sure he had not forgotten anything else, I told him “It should not take me more than three minutes” and started to walk away. Then, remembering something I had seen on the television once, I turned back and said “but you owe me one”.
If Jose wants to give me the jobs he does not like, maybe I will give him the jobs I do not like.
Nushi
