FIFTEEN: Tales of Monkeyman

Here's my thousand words for the week:

This is an "artists conception" of what a ten dimensional Universe might look like, according to one version of string theory.

Maybe a few more words. This weekend, I started rewriting my prizewinning novel, TALES OF MONKEYMAN, after a hiatus of, count 'em 19 years. Because I have noticed that there are only so many minutes in a week, I've decided to combine these projects for awhile and publish excerpts of the novel as my blog. It touches on many similar themes.

The first installment is a doctored facsimile of the actual news report that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle back in 1982 and inspired the novel. I changed a few details, like the uncertainty of the creature's species.

TALES OF MONKEYMAN

A Novel

(c) 2007 by Henry Hitz

Thursday, Februrary 20, 20__ San Francisco Chronicle

A 'Monkey Man' Found in Kenya

Nairobi

A wild man who acts like a monkey but looks vaguely human has been found on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. According to Dr. U. Mbuzi, the Homa Bay district health officer who announced the discovery yesterday, the being may be human but "his behavior is just like that of a monkey -- even the way he eats bananas. He sucks them into his mouth whole, skin and all."

The being, who has been called "George" by hospital staff at Homa Bay, 175 miles northwest of Nairobi, was found two months ago by charcoal and wood gatherers in the rugged Lambwe Valley forest.

George was then brought to the hospital where he is being held pending positive identification of his species.

In a telephone interview, Mbuzi said George does not sleep in a bed but prefers to squat like a monkey. He has "nibbling, silly behavior with fast movements" similar to that of a monkey.

The being cannot speak any known language, but uses single utterances for food and water. Doctors have estimated his age at about 27 years. A search has been launched in the forest for villagers who may know the origins of the being.

When found, George was wearing no clothing and his body was covered with hair.

Doctors in the hospital are carrying out tests on the being to determine exactly what he is.

Mbuzi said it was possible that George was a human raised by baboons, which are prevalent in the area, but he is not ruling out the possibility of him having emerged from a non-human species. United Press