She awoke.
Her eyes groggily opened- slowly at first, but then darting back and forth in a panic. Where was she? What happened? A dull pain lingered in her groin. Her babies! She sat up, and the foreign machine next to her bed began beeping quickly. A man entered the room in a lab coat, patting the new gorilla mom behind her ears. She couldn’t understand his words, but she appreciated the soothing nature of his voice. She took a deep breath; and in that moment, she was at peace.
And then she heard it. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. The high-pitched sound pierced the air and her heart rate soared. Her shoulders heaving, she began squirming in her bed, as the darkest thoughts of utter despair clouded her mind. The man in the lab coat came rushing back in.
“PTSD! PTSD!” he shouted, his words unintelligible to the sedated primate. “Shut that shit off!!” he screamed, storming back into the hallway.
The beep had, of course, ended long ago. Defeated, she slumped back onto her pillow, tears streaming down her cheeks. She knew what was coming next.
2 men entered the room, each grunting as they struggled to carry a smoky barrel between them before setting it on the floor. The lid had been cracked open, and steam was escaping through the top. The air was thick with the unmistakable, pungent odor of microwaved monkeys.
The man in the lab coat entered the room again, this time with 3 sets of silverware. His eyes caught his patient’s eyes briefly, but she lacked the strength to make a sound. Silently, her eyes penetrated his, looking for a shred of humanity and compassion. Finding none, and completely defeated, her eyes slowly closed. She couldn’t bear to watch. The man in the lab coat reached out and squeezed her shoulder before turning to his colleagues.
“SOUP’S ON, BOYS!” he shouted as the room erupted into raucous laughter. One of the men began doling out gorilla bits as the other placed a napkin on his lap. Gorilla babies are messy, and the microwave had turned them into a piping hot broth of stringy cartilage and fur. The soy sauce, though, had given the babies the smoky, earthen flavor that made this such a delicacy.
She drifted back to sleep amid the horrid din of lip smacking and fur straining. Tomorrow would be another day.