Leaving Madagascar Chapter 8

When we finally got toBefandefa Madagascar. I was so sore my feet were all banged up and scarred. I could not believe we had just came over 700 miles from Didy. My parents were excellent in the trees so I had to run most of the time to keep up with them. I became a very fast runner. My father and I  had a few good times as we were traveling. He learned that I had a few advantages running on my feet. I could jump over logs and over streams where he could not if there were no trees in site. You could see that my father was enjoying himself. I think he always wanted to go on an adventure. But had been so busy most of the time he never got there. We all bonded during that trip. We were in a new life together and we all counted on each other. My parents were tired  we were looking forward to boat ride that was ahead. We were headed for Africa. It seemed unreal that we were out of our element and headed to the Amazon for real. I wondered what I would see. What it looked like over there. Would it be any better where we were going? I had a weird thought that it may be the exact same as before. But for now we were all having a great adventure. Just getting out of Madagasscar was only the first step of many toward our new life. When I looked at the ship we were going to be taking across to Africa I got scared. I was a land monkey not a water monkey. The ship was very old I was surprised it was even floating. My dad had a plan as soon as the ship started to pull away from the harbor we would all jump onto the rope that tied it to the dock and stay there until we were out to sea. I was shivering from all the sea spray and my mother was soaked. I looked at  my father he was very strong and never showed any weakness. I was thinking back to him teaching me how to build nests. He was one tough monkey. No matter what was happening he seemed like he could always handle it. He never showed that he was hurting under any circumstance. I admired him for that and decided to try to be more like him. We were clinging to the rope swinging all over the place getting soaked with every wave  He would say just hold on a little bit longer and this will all be worth it soon.  We were out to sea almost 30 miles before my dad said to us to get on board now but be very quiet. It was now dark and my dad climbed up the rope first and peered over the edge to see a whole bunch of  people sitting there talking. He had a sad look on his face when he came back down the rope and said sorry we were going to have to wait a little longer to make sure we were not seen by the people on the ship. My toes were cramped and aching from holding on so long just then I thought of my mother and how tired she must be. She had not said too much as she was just holding on for dear life swinging in the wind wet and cold. In that moment I remembered why they were doing this. It was all for me. I could not let them take all the abuse. So me being the largest of us all I made a spot where I could hook my toes in the rope and be sure it was safe. Then I told my mother to come down some and rest on my shoulders to take some of the weight off of her. She protested and said that she was fine. But I saw it in her eyes that she was very tired and holding on with everything she had. I demanded  her this time to come down and put her weight on me for a while. She slowly did what I asked her. When she settled down on my shoulder I could see she was in pain from holding on so long. Tears came to her eyes as she tried to open her hands. She had been holding the rope tightly for almost four hours now. She let her tail down and put it around my waist and said thank you Leo. When she did this I had a warm feeling come over me and it felt wonderful. This was a turning point for my personality. I wanted to take some of the weight off people and make it easier for them. The more it hurt me from her weight on my shoulder the better I felt if that is even possible. I knew I had made it better for her if only for a moment. Finally everyone had left the deck to go to sleep. My father peered over the edge and said it was clear to come up. At that point I could not of thought of any better sound to hear. My father went up first then he out stretched a hand to my mother and pulled her aboard. Just then a huge wave came up and slammed me against the ship and it hit me so hard I think I passed out for a second. But only for a second when my head went under water I was very much awake. I heard my mother screaming and then saw my father was holding her back from falling over the edge trying to reach out for me he had to cover her mouth so they would not get caught.