Jumbo Scifi ran and ran. He could hear his heart galloping in his chest like angry horses. He felt the sweat blind his eyes and their salty taste feel his mouth and seem to twist his tongue. Glancing frantically behind him, he saw the angry monkey with the sharp red teeth make one last leap… he felt its sharp claws sink into his flesh…he yelled at the top of his voice woi yaa - yoi-i-i!! Mba-ko-kooo! In one last desperate pull for life, Jumbo Scifi broke free. He found himself sitting up in bed, sweating, panting and shaking all over. He heard a knock on his door.
‘Jumbo you okay? Jumbo…?’
‘I’m …I’m fine. Just a bad dream,’ he explained in a visibly trembling voice. Glancing at the wall clock, he saw it was almost 6:00am. He jumped out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Our gentle Mr. Rampant had not been having an easy time over the past few days. For a second consecutive night, he had had very bad nightmares and did not need any convincing that jealous folks and other dark forces were conniving to destroy him, and make sure that he did not become Mr. Smoothy’s favourite. In fact, he was more baffled by the previous night’s nightmare, which he still could not understand. He had seen himself talking happily to a buoyant Mr. Smoothy who was tapping his back and congratulating him for a job well done. ‘I really like your pondahal,’ Mr. Smoothy was telling him when suddenly, to his utter dismay, Jumbo Scifi realized that it was actually a big black donkey with flaming eyes he was talking to. Now dreaming of a donkey was a bad enough omen among our common townsfolk. But dreaming of a donkey as black as charcoal was monstrous. So monstrous that our gallant Jumbo Scifi did not dare to ask any of the elders in our little town to interpret that dream for him. And now a monkey with fire in its mouth!! Nopa sajobot! Subohum! Subohum!
But these were not Jumbo Scifi’s only troubles. Of late, he had heard that some of our common townsfolk were calling him names like hypocrite and loud mouth behind his back. He had heard that they secretly chuckled and pointed at him and called him dof, tarpet, and ratahal, and even the emperor with no clothes whenever he passed by a group of people. Being of a sharp mind, he had noticed that people often fell silent when he passed them by and he could see something like a strange light in their eyes when they looked at him. Alikoo! Alikoo! Alaamuta Mangbeng! Nyankumeh!
But ah! Who cared what petty and jealous nobodys accused him of doing or of being? Jumbo Scifi was certain that the generous Mr. Smoothy was aware of his gallant efforts to defend him by hook or by crook, by the book or the look or whatever it took. He knew it was just matter of time before he would get the ultimate summons from the big boss and receive his ultimate slap on the back!! And then how he would enjoy watching all those jealous nothings hold their mouths and marvel at his great luck! To hell with all those so-called evil monkeys and donkeys that sneaked into his dreams! He would show them he did not care a wit about their malicious insinuations. He would continue to defend the great Mr. Smoothy of ratatoi fame!