The thing in the jungle

I don’t remember the reasons that led me to leave home. Maybe it was a moment of anger, possibly the excruciating weight of the unending routine. Or an urgent need to find the answer to a question that was never asked.

Now I was lost in the middle of the jungle that, over the years, had regained its dominance over the city. The shapes of the buildings and vehicles that had been buried by the vegetation could still be guessed. Things that I never knew and that I have only seen in the old videos at the library.

There was a time when this place was crowded with the noises of diverse engines and the bustle of voices mixing without harmony. Now there are only the murmurs of the jungle, the incessant hum of insects, the occasional songs of the birds, and the calming sound of the wind swaying the vegetation. That orchestra had a hypnotic effect that soon made me forget why I was there.

Hundreds of eyes watched me from the anonymity provided by the undergrowth, all those presences observing my clumsy advance on the irregular terrain, but there was a pair of eyes following me with a particular curiosity. The owner of those eyes seemed to forget all precautions that are due to a stranger, the sound of dry leaves crushing behind me confirmed that it was just a few steps away. I could hear its heavy breathing a few inches away from me just before I turned around and found myself face to face with the creature.

I cannot calculate the number of thoughts that attacked me when I had it in front of me, the mixture of terror and astonishment that this creature provoked in me made it impossible to reach a clear conclusion. The resemblance between us was impossible to ignore, and certain words that I once read arose from my memory “In our image, after our likeness”.

When his finger touched me, I wished I had the ability to cry. We were so alike that I felt the immediate sensation of responding to his gesture, but my bewilderment prevented me from doing so. However, there were some differences that worried me even more. The first one is that the creature was almost entirely covered in hair, the second one was the proportion of its limbs since its arms were longer than mine and its legs shorter, and the last one is that this being was breathing.

It suddenly turned around and left losing itself again in the thickness of the jungle, the sound of footsteps behind me scared it away.

“I have been looking everywhere for you”, my brother said when he arrived by my side.

“I have seen a human; I have met our creators.” I told him while looking into his eyes.

“Humans are extinct, that was an orangutan.” He answered me outlining a smile as we turned to go home.