Jimmy's Pals

By Marco Cornelissen

After his earlier "escape" from the monkey enclosure, Jimmy manages to escape again. This time he stays at the zoo and looks for other animals that reside here. He has all adventures with fun, sweet, but also dangerous animals. He never thought he could fly, sit on other animals, taste dirty food, or fool caretakers. Eventually he comes to the conclusion that he is best off with his family and best friend Max. But once he gets back, he wonders if he has really experienced all this ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marco Cornelissen
• Release date: Apr 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220297134

Book preview

home.

Chapter 1. The elephants.

Inside the monkey enclosure, Jimmy is staring ahead, feeling sorry for himself. Sitting inside is so boring! He is staring at his best friend Max peeling a banana and taking a bite.

Jimmy yawns. ‘Gee, why can they not go outside? A monkey can withstand a bit of cold, can they not?'

He is thinking back to his escape from the zoo now almost a month [1] ago. He wants to be able to escape now, he wants to know how the other animals in the zoo are enjoying themselves with this weather. Slowly he is drifting off....

He opens his eyes and is watching. The snow is still there. His gaze goes to the door and he really thinks it is ajar! None of his family or friends seem to be noticing, because they are too busy eating, resting or talking.

Jimmy gets up and walks to the door where the caretaker always comes in, looks back again and sees that no one is watching him. When he puts his feet in the snow he does not feel the cold, but there is a footstep left behind as he continues.

‘Weird,’ he thinks. He gently pushes against the door. Wow! The door is indeed ajar, so he can go outside! He steps out, looks around, but it is very quiet and empty.

‘Probably not a weekend, otherwise it would have been more busy,’ he is thinking.

Where should he go first? He wants to know what other animals are living in the zoo. In front of him is a sign with all kinds of arrows and he takes a good look at it.

The arrow with 'elephants' points to the right; 'tigers' points to the left and for 'safari' and 'aquatic animals’ you willl have to go straight ahead.

He thinks the elephants are interesting, but he does not know why. So he walks to the right. After a few minutes he ends up in an empty place and sees only a wall, which is too high for him to take a look. He grabs the top of the wall and climbs up. Once on top of the wall he sees a large pit with all grey and brown animals.

So these are elephants, he says out loud. Those animals are weird. I think I am going to get to know them.

He jumps from the wall towards a tree and swings further down. He hops to the elephant that stands with his butt towards him.

Good afternoon, Jimmy says to the elephant.

The elephant is startled, stomps wildly with his paws on the ground and Jimmy has to be careful not to get crushed.

Excuse me, he says once the elephant stands still. I was not trying to scare you.

You should not approach an elephant from behind either...

... Jimmy, Jimmy says.

Jimmy, you are asking for problems, the elephant replies. My name is Oliver. What are you and what are you doing here?

I am a monkey. I was bored in my enclosure and wanted to know what animals are living in this zoo. When it turned out that the door was not locked, I decided to go out. Oliver, why do you have two tails? and points at his trunk.

Oliver bursts into laughter.

That is not my tail, you silly monkey, that is a trunk. As you can see, there are two holes in it, those are my nostrils. That way we can smell where the food is. At the end there is a kind of 'finger' with which we can grab the food and then put it in our mouth, and he points to his mouth with his trunk, which is just hidden underneath.

"We also use the trunk to drink water, or to guzzle water which we throw in the air like a shower. And when we suffer from the sun or insects, we pick up sand and throw it on our backs.