Monkey business

How some people will go to extreme lengths to make sure they bond with the love of their life

- A short story by Derek Rogerson

James, will you please stop calling and messaging me. I've told you so many times that although I really value your friendship, I'm afraid that's as far as it goes. You're a lovely guy but just not my type.

James read the message from Jane for at least the tenth time before he could bring himself to accept that despite what certainly had been a great friendship, it was now pretty clear that it could never develop into a more intimate or romantic relationship.

To say he was gutted was an understatement. In his anguish he realised that he could no longer live in the presence of the only woman he had ever desired as every meeting from now on would be like a dagger through his broken heart and the only way he could ever forget her was to get as far away as possible - Africa beckoned....

It was some four years later before Jane received news of James from his older brother John. He had called at her little cottage in Barton Bottoms where, in her position as a primary school teacher, she was attempting to get her head round the latest school reading record - and not making much headway.

John's news about her old friend was not good. It appeared James had contracted a severe disabling sickness due to a dodgy tanning mousse that he had applied too liberally, a sickness which had left him partially paralysed and for which there was no known cure.

John then informed Jane that James had never stopped caring for her and that there would never be another woman in his life and, in the hope that she would remember him with fondness, he hoped that she would accept one final special gift from him; a living token that would forever keep the bond of friendship alive.