Monkey Games
By Vince Coyner
Chapter 17. Aislado
Laura’s feeling that they they would not find anything good on Aislado the closer the got. Nonetheless she knew Jonathan needed to try and save the only family he had ever known. She wished that she had not been right, but just like on El volcán, from touchdown she knew things were not going to be good. Jonathan found Sebring lying just beyond the path that lead to the compound. He had come from the house expecting to meet the pilot who was bringing the medical equipment for Jonathan. Instead he found two men who pulled automatic weapons from their bags. He never had a chance. Jonathan crumbled and wept at his side, attempting unsuccessfully to wipe the dried blood from Sebring’s mouth. He put his hands over Sebring’s eyes and closed them. He looked down at the blood covered body. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was inconceivable. He cupped Sebring’s face in his hands, shaking his head as the tears rolled down his face.
Laura knew there was nothing she could say. She only knew that they didn’t have much time and they needed to get back in the air if they were going to save Benjamin. “Jonathan,” she said as she walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Sweetheart, we have to go.” He looked up at her with a combination of revulsion, fear and anger. She wasn’t sure which was directed at her, but she knew they had to go. She put her hand on his cheek, wiping away the tears that would not be stopped, “Sweetheart, there is nothing we can do for him now. We have to go so that we can stop the people who did this from doing it again.” Without saying a word Jonathan nodded and picked up Sebring’s body and walked towards the compound. He walked into Sebring’s room, and laid his body on his bed. Jonathan straightened the body out, put his hands by his side and covered him with a blanket. Standing ramrod straight, Jonathan just stared down at Sebring not saying a word. Jonathan did not want to leave him, but slowly Laura made him understand that they needed to go so that they could make sure the same thing did not happen to Benjamin. The walk back to the plane was a silent one.
As tears ran down his cheeks Jonathan stared out at the clouds as they were illuminated by the moon. His thoughts returned to his conversation with Sebring at the age of 14, the one he had been remembering on his first flight to La Playa Arena less than a week before. Sebring and Albert had met while on a tour of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Beirut, which was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century. Both were traveling alone and struck up a conversation after sounds of one of the all too frequent explosions in the distance caused a plume of smoke to billow from the city below. This was indeed a world of chaos they both agreed as they proceeded to talk for much of the afternoon. Albert worked for a pharmaceutical company and was on vacation in Beirut. Yes, it was a strange place to vacation Albert agreed, but he had had enough of cookie cutter ski resorts and sunbaked beaches. Having always been a student of history he came to Beirut looking for something different. Albert was fascinated by Sebring’s journey and his strong interest in the Martial Arts. Most compelling however was his interest in teaching. Sebring explained that he was returning home to the Shaolin Temple where he had spent most of the last thirty years. He had traveled across the continent in search of something and had discovered that that which he was looking for had been with him the entire time. He realized that one day while in Oman and having struck up a conversation with a little boy in the street. A few minutes after meeting the little boy it became clear what he wanted to do. The boy was holding a bottle of Coke in his hand with an exasperated look on his face. He could not get the top off. He put the bottle between his legs and tried to twist, to no avail. He started to put it up to his mouth in order to try and pry the top but stopped the moment the metal touched his tooth. He softly tapped the top of the bottle against a light post in hopes of loosening it but again found no success. Noticing the little boy’s difficulties Sebring thought he might help and found himself fascinated as he felt he could almost see the wheels in the young man’s head turning as he considered how to extricate the brown nectar from the bottle. “Would you like some help” Sebring asked in perfect, if heavily accented Arabic. (One of three “foreign" languages he studied growing up, the other two being English, and French. Growing up in Macau, Chinese and Portuguese were his native tongues) Startled, the boy looked up at Sebring for a second and said “Yes sir” as he cautiously held the bottle towards the stranger. Sebring quickly popped the top off of the bottle with his hand, despite the fact that it was not a twist off. He was careful not to take the bottle from the boy’s hands. As the boy quickly drank the soda he was surprised the drink was not nearly as cold as he imagined it would be. After emptying the bottle quickly, the boy looked up at the stranger rather sheepishly, knowing he should have offered him a sip. “What is your name?” the boy asked. “Sebring” he replied. “Well, thank you Mr. Sebring.” The child then began a verbal assault upon Sebring that he was not sure he could keep up with. “You’re not from around here are you? Where are you from? Where’s your car then? How long are you here for? Do you want to have dinner with our family? What is China like? Do you own a Panda bear? Does everyone look like you there?” The assault was deafening, almost overwhelming but before he had realized it he had been talking with that little boy and answering his barrage of questions for over an hour. Suddenly Sebring realized that he enjoyed that hour with that little boy more than he had enjoyed anything in longer than he could remember. Like a door opening to a road beyond, it became clear to Sebring in that instant that teaching was what he wanted to do. How or where he was not sure, but he knew that he found more joy in that one hour than he had found in decades and he knew he had found the calling he had been looking for. He decided he would return to the Temple and would consider teaching there, but he was not sure that was what he wanted because he knew from experience that the world of Shaolin instruction could be very narrow. Nonetheless, that was where he would start and he began his return journey that very day. He decided that he would return along a slightly different route in order to see other sights along the way. It was on that return trip that he decided to visit Beirut.
As the church was closing for the night Albert invited Sebring to breakfast the next morning so that they might continue their discussion. After a day of talking and taking in the sights of Beirut the two had dinner at one of the dwindling number of French restaurants that remained open in the city. As they dined Albert told Sebring about a baby named Jonathan. The baby was a relative of Albert’s employer, but he had a unique problem. He had just been diagnosed with a condition that would not allow him to be around people. As a result he had to be brought up in an environment without almost any human contact. He was, Albert explained, like one of those boys in a plastic bubble. Sebring wasn’t exactly sure what a boy in a plastic bubble was, but he nodded his head, assuming he would get a better picture as the conversation went on. “Alex, the man I work for and who is related to Jonathan, has decided that he doesn’t like the idea of the boy living in one of those bubbles. He has instead decided that the boy should be raised on an island he owns named Aislado. The island is actually quite nice. It’s off the coast of Peru and was built as a vacation estate for Ameil Houte, an early 20th century oil baron.” Never having heard the name Ameil Houte before and unsure of exactly where this conversation was going, Sebring simply nodded. “The doctors say that the condition may get better in time but it will take many years. It will be imperative to his survival that Jonathan train and stay in almost perfect health and away from just about everyone.” Sebring thought he might be getting an idea of where this was going but was getting a little annoyed at Albert’s taking so long to get to his point. “Why did you say earlier this might be something of interest to me?” he asked, referring to a statement Albert had made at the beginning of their conversation. “Because his mother and father are dead and someone has to train him and educate him” Albert said somewhat defensively. “Given what you’ve told me about your plans to become a teacher, I thought this might be exactly what you have been looking for.” Albert was right. As soon as Sebring understood what he was being asked to do, his mind started whirring. There were a million questions that would have to be asked and answered and details of all sorts that would have to be looked at, but the first brick was laid in the road which would lead to Jonathan bounding off of the plane on Aislado almost a year later and into Sebring’s world. It was the beginning of what Sebring was certain were to be the most rewarding period of his life.
Twenty years later when the last breath was flowing out of his body, Sebring’s heart hurt, knowing that again there was nothing he could do to save someone he loved. But this time he knew things would turn out differently as he had trained Jonathan well and Laura was a match for anyone. As the darkness overcame him he recalled the moment when that little boy came bouncing off that plane with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. He was suddenly overwhelmed by the twenty years of joy that little boy had brought him and he knew that he had indeed fulfilled his destiny.
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