tyler saves the jungle-a4-landscape

No. 8 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY: 3pm
Mop in one hand, dishcloth in the other, Tyler puffed his chest up in attempt
to hide the mess behind him.
Spotting the rubbish-strewn floor and the kitchen countertop covered in
splashes, his mother looked sternly at him. Tyler cleared his throat:
Don´t worry, mom! It´s not what you think it is...

Earlier that morning, Tyler had awoken to what he thought
was someone tickling him.
When he opened his eyes, he found an emerald green feather
floating in the air.

It fluttered past his face onto his bed, on which was propped a small package.
A birthday present?
Today was the 14th January - his 11th birthday!

Reading his name, the now fully awake kid smiled and sat bolt upright.
Ripping it open, he unfurled a large leaf, containing a message.
It was written in the most horrible spidery scribble ever. He couldn’t
understand a word!
The worst speller in his class could have done better than that.
A monkey would have done better.
His smile faded.



Letter in hand, he leapt out of bed.
A frown met him in the mirror. The letter blinked.

What?!!!

Eyebrows raising, he squinted at the glass. The scrawl
had transformed into words he could suddenly read....

MIRROR WRITING!!!

Dear Tyler,

On today your Special Day, when
your powers are strong, I need your
help because all hope is gone.

Use these beans to make a drink, and all the
while, please focus and think.

When you take a sip, if you make a noise like “EWW!,”
you know you need to try anew.

If you lick your lips and want to drink it all, you’ve
found a way through the wall. There I await you,
Your friend,
Oolal

P.S. Bring the feather with you!



Trying to figure out the riddle, and wondering who on earth
Oolal was, Tyler picked up the parcel.
A tiny pouch fell out. Inside were small brown beans. He
counted twenty-one.
Chewing his lip as he got dressed, he carefully placed the
feather into his back pocket.
Twenty-one beans and a crazy message, which could only
be read through a mirror. Now what?
Catching his reflection in the window, he noticed a new
expression looking back at him.
Curiosity or determination? Or maybe, a bit of both?



Sneaking into the kitchen on tiptoe, Tyler closed the door quietly.
Think, right? That’s what that Oolal said to do.
He divided the beans into three equal measures...
Take 1. Thinking “ENERGY”, he made a smoothie from coconut water, spinach and
seven of the small brown beans.

BWAAAH!!! Spitting the beastly brew out, he watched it splash down the fridge.

The fridge door slammed open and shut wildly.
Sophia groaned. Lily farted loudly.
He decided it best to try again...

Take 2. Thinking “MAD SCIENTIST”, he concocted a drink from
seven more beans, apple juice and the rest of last night’s
roast chicken dinner.

It tasted truly FOUL!

Oh NO!!!

No sooner had the loathsome liquid hit the bin than all the rubbish raced right out.
As if seeking shelter, the homeless scraps banged wildly on cupboard doors

What a mess!

He would get into such trouble if anyone were to walk in now!

Take 3. Thinking “HAPPY”, and aware this was his last chance, he
reminded himself to breathe slowly in order to calm his mind.

He carefully poured the last seven beans into the popcorn
popper, and turned it on.

Soon the kitchen smelled of CHOCOLATE!

SUGAR and WARM MILK, he thought! Blending these ingredients
with the hot beans, he took a sip. A little crunchy, but...WOW!

This hot chocolate was DELICIOUS!!! His smile returned.

And then, his feet lifted off the ground!

,It took Tyler a second to notice he was floating towards the wall. Are you kidding me?! he shouted.

The wall looked like it was melting. And then, he found himself on the other side.

Man, THATI’m way too old for magic, but was AWESOME!!!

He gasped as he looked down and saw Flatbush Avenue far far below.
By the time the Statue of liberty faded into the distance, the young chocolate maker was so excited to find himself flying
that he forgot to feel afraid at being so high up in the sky!

Within minutes, the temperature warmed, and Tyler could hear donkeys bray. He began a descent into a pretty white village
tucked on top of a mountain. “Happiness Lab”, he read, as he crash-landed onto a, thankfully empty, chair. It seemed he was on
the terrace of a café or ice-cream parlour.

Not bad for your first solo flight,Tyler!, he thought.
A kid at the next table looked at him weirdly. Nobody else seemed to have noticed his arrival.
As he looked around wondering where he was, a tiny monkey fell off a shelf inside.

Rushing to pick it up, Tyler realised the monkey was actually a soft toy!
It looked so lifelike!!
And then it spoke!!!
“Tyler, you took AGES! Hurry - we have work to do!
Oh, yes. My name is Oolal. Nice to meet you!
Welcome to Mayan Monkey Mijas Chocolate Factory”.
You’re the Oolal from the message, right?”, Tyler asked.
The monkey smiled, and instructed him to shuffle forward slowly, with his head
bent to one side and his cheek resting against her.
“Tyler, you and I have been assigned a Rescue Mission. If we are to succeed, I
need you to pay very close attention to everything I say.”





Before he could figure out whether it even was a good idea to take orders
from a stuffed toy that looked like a monkey (or a monkey that looked like a
stuffed toy!), he looked up to find a man grinning at him.
“Hola! I´m Jason. Nice to meet you.
Looking from Jason down to his own hand, Tyler realised he had flown all this
way whilst still holding his hot chocolate.
Even crazier, the cup was still full!

So, Tyler, most kids visit us in order to learn how to make chocolate.
You are the first one to actually BRING some with you!”
Jason threw his head back and guffawed loudly.
“Would it be ok if I tasted it?”
Unsure of what to say, Tyler handed over the cup silently.
As Jason sipped, his eyes lit up....

“Tyler, your chocolate is AMAZING!

Where did you get the beans from?
I need some YESTERDAY!





Tyler swallowed.
How could he explain how he had the beans had landed magically on his
bed, that the hot chocolate he had made with them had caused him
to fly from his home all the way to this chocolate factory, and that
it looked like a stuffed toy monkey belonging to the chocolate factory
might have something to do with it?!
Before he could figure out an answer, Oolal pinched him and whispered:
“No problem at all, Jason. I can get you some. I’m going to need a
REALLY big cheque though”.
Tyler blushed bright red, then repeated her words.
Following instructions was all well and good, but who was going to take
a kid seriously.



Jason smiled.
“Sure! Make some chocolate whilst I go fetch my checkbook. On me. This is Inés”, he said.
A smiling lady in a pink uniform opened the door to the factory, as the most intense,
delicious scent of chocolate raced up his nostrils.
Inés handed him a hairnet, and Tyler took his place with other people at a table set with tall
bottles full of ingredients.
Mango strips, candied strawberries, honey almonds, salted peanuts, toasted coconut,
pineapple chunks, chocolate drops.....mmm!
Tyler´s mouth watered as he read the labels, one by one.

Each person took their mold and, guided by the chocolate master, filled it from the taps
flowing with milk, white and dark chocolate.
Back at the table full of molds overflowing with liquid chocolate, Inés called for silence:
“Guys, your task here today is to create the most amazing chocolate ever.
Get creative. Think delicious. You have 10 minutes!”

Tyler created a jungle scene with the different toppings.
Chewy kiwi strips became leaves, whilst milk chocolate drops created tree trunks.
A cute monkey, made of chocolate sprinkles, stuck out a fat strawberry tongue and peeked
from the bar with eyes made of marshmallow and dark chocolate buttons.

“Guys, look at these bars!”, said Inés, as everyone gathered round him.
“WOW!,” was the last thing he heard, as Jason handed him something.
His feet lifted. This sensation was beginning to feel familiar.
Where was he going now?!!!

Getting closer to the ceiling, he put his hands over his head, and suddenly found himself
on the other side.
He couldn´t see the chocolate factory anymore. The white-washed houses on top of the
mountain shrank to pin head size, and were replaced by wild sea horses.
He was airborne again, and over the ocean!

To his right, his wide-eyed gaze was met by a grinning Oolal.
“Now we´re on the way to the REAL challenge, Tyler!”, she said, snuggling and curling her tail around his arm.
Reaching into his pocket, she pulled out the feather. Smiling, she popped it behind his ear.
Gliding downwards towards land again, they passed turquoise waters, golden beaches and coconut groves.

WOW! Are we hanging out THERE?!! he wondered, hopefully.

Oolal, the mind-reading monkey, looked at him with gentle black eyes:
“Not this time, Ty - you´ve got more important things to do”.





As they swooped downwards through leaves and branches, Tyler instinctively closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, Oolal and he had landed in a sunny clearing.
Tiny monkeys, with loveheart-shaped faces and hairstyles like Mohawk warriors, hung by their
tails whilst jumping from the branches of pretty little trees full of multicoloured fruits.
.
Oolal looks just like them!, thought Tyler, as she leapt from his arms, and grabbed a purple fruit.
Throwing it on the ground, she cracked the fruit open, then popped a white seed in her mouth.
There were the same size as the beans he had made chocolate with this morning.
This morning seemed so long ago.

Oolal looked him straight in the eye:
“Chocolate was born in this jungle, Tyler. For thousands of years, we spider monkeys have sown cacao seeds so that
new trees can grow. But now,
the farmers make so little money from cacao, they are about to sell the land.
If that happens, everything will get cleared away to make space for palm trees, and all that live here will die.
Your mission is to keep the jungle alive.”
Tyler gulped hard. Up to now, it seemed he was on an fun adventure. What was a kid like him supposed to do to help?



In the sky above him, a Resplendant Quetzal circled, slowly and songless.
Watching the bulldozers march, orange and black, like an army of
roaring gigantic jaguars, the bird frowned.
He thought of his friends, the spider monkeys, in the jungle below.
They wouldn’t stand a chance.

Jaguars they could outmanoeuvre, but the machines were destroying
everything in their path, leaving the monkeys and other jungle
creatures orphaned, homeless and starving.
There was no more time left.
He really hoped Oolal was right about this kid.



A breeze whistled through the trees, causing the feather behind Tyler´s ear to
dance against his skin. He shivered lightly.
As he smiled at being tickled, a group of glum-faced men trundled out of the trees.
Spotting him, they stopped suddenly in their tracks. Looking at the feather, they
bowed their heads towards him.
Tyler gulped again as Oolal shoved him forward. Hhe noticed how old their shoes
were.
When the men failed to respond to his “Hello!”, he broke his bars into small pieces,

There was silence whilst the chocolate melted on each man’s tongue.
The bulldozers had stopped, and no chainsaws could be heard. Instead a sound, not
unlike that of a dog barking, came from beyond the treetops.

The group erupted into a spontaneous “mmm!!!”.

Oolal poked her fingers into Tyler´s ribs. He suddenly remembered that Jason had handed
him something just before he and Oolal had left Mayan Monkey Mijas.
“Gentlemen”, said Tyler, returning the bow. “I need a very large quantity of your excellent
cacao on a regular basis for a chocolate factory in Spain.
How can we arrange this?”

Dazzling emerald green and ruby red, an exquisite bird
landed on one of the lowest branches alongside Oolal.
With a green tail almost one metre long and crested head
feathers, he looked like a bird cousin to the spider monkeys.
The bird barked. Oolal whinnied. Tyler jumped.
The men bowed deeper.
“It would be an honour”, said the group leader. “Let us talk”.

Oolal flung her arms around Tyler´s shoulders.
“Thank You for dedicating your special day to this rescue mission.
Together, we´ve managed to save this cacao jungle for now.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!!!

Hearing the kitchen door open, Tyler quickly stuffed the feather into his pocket, and
grabbed the mop and dishcloth.
“WHAT THE HECK IS THIS MESS?!!”.His mother stood in the doorway, hands on hips.
“You had better have a pretty good explanation, kiddo!”.
Tyler sighed. Was there any point in even trying to explain it to her? Did animals
believe in magic rescue missions? Maybe Lily and Sophia would listen to him instead.