If you’ve ever wondered what kind of mischief a clever monkey can get into, let me tell you about Cubis. Yesterday, I made the mistake of thinking I could step out for just a few minutes and leave him in the house unattended. Everything was perfectly fine—at least until he spotted the bag of coal sitting in the corner.
To Cubis, that bag wasn’t a pile of dusty black lumps. No, it was a brand-new toy, waiting to be explored. The moment I returned, I opened the door to what looked like a scene straight out of a cartoon. Coal dust was everywhere—on the floor, smeared across the furniture, and even streaked across the walls. And in the middle of it all sat Cubis, absolutely delighted with himself, his face and hands completely black except for two little white circles where his eyes shone.
I couldn’t help but laugh, even though I knew cleaning would take hours. He pranced around proudly, as if to say, “Look what I made!” Every step left little paw prints of coal across the floor. At one point, he even tried to give me a “gift”—a shiny lump of coal he had carefully chosen from the pile.
Neighbors who peeked in burst out laughing, snapping photos of his soot-covered grin. He looked less like a monkey and more like a mischievous chimney sweep from an old storybook. By the time I managed to corral him into the bath, he was still giggling in his own way, splashing water everywhere as if the mess was just part of the fun.
Lesson learned: never underestimate Cubis’s creativity—or his ability to turn ordinary objects into a full-blown adventure. From now on, the coal stays far, far away. Because if one thing’s certain, it’s that Cubis should never, ever be left home alone with a bag of coal!
