Heller’s Decision Read Online Free

misfortune to meet.” And
considering that she was the only monkey I’d ever met, my standards
for exemplary simian behaviour hadn’t been set particularly high in
the first place.
    As if she could understand my words (and who knew, maybe she could
– I’ll admit my knowledge of spider monkeys would barely fill a
thimble), my scolding enraged her. Fuelled by her caffeine high,
she screeched and danced on my back, wrenching on my hair. It was
the worst – the only – monkey tantrum I’d ever
experienced.
    “ Pei Pei! Stop that!” yelled Julian
sternly.
    It worked for a minute, Pei Pei halting her tantrum and peeping
down at her trainer, her fingers still gnarled in my hair. But then
she barked again and leapt onto my head, leaning down to cover my
eyes with her paws. Oh, just great! I was too afraid to let go of the beam to prise them away,
so lay there, scared and now blinded.
    “ What the hell’s going on here?” called up
a different voice that I recognised as belonging to one of the
firefighters. “We go away for a few minutes and now there’s a woman
stuck up in the air in her panties.”
    “And my monkey,” wailed Julian. “My Pei Pei’s
stuck up there too.”
    “ I’m wearing a skirt!” I insisted hotly,
worrying about just how much of my undies were now showing and
really, really hoping Brady had turned off the camera. “It’s just
ridden up a bit.”
    “ Can you guys rescue Tilly?” asked Trent. “You’re firemen, after
all. Isn’t that kind of your job?”
    “ I don’t need rescuing. I just need some .
. . assistance. That’s all,” my voice floated down to them from
above, like some rather inept angel who’d fallen from the sky and
managed to get herself caught on a steel beam on the way down. With
a monkey on her back. And her undies on display.
    Someo ne, who I presumed was one of the firefighters, strode
purposefully across the studio floor. I secretly hoped it would be
Mr October to the rescue – he was really cute. But then I heard
noises indicating he was about to scale the very ladder that had
failed me so badly.
    “ Not that one! ” I joined another five voices in
simultaneously shouting out the warning to him.
    “That one’s broken,” Trent explained.
    Footsteps moved over to the other side and
noises came to me of someone skillfully and swiftly ascending the
other ladder.
    “ Keep sliding over to me and I can help you
to the ladder,” instructed one of the firefighters, and it was Mr
April. “We met before. My name’s Warren. You’re Tilly, aren’t
you?”
    “ Yes. And I’m sorry, Warren, but it’s a
little tricky for me to move at the moment. I’m sure you’ve noticed
that I have a very badly-behaved monkey covering my eyes and I’m
kind of afraid to move while I can’t see.”
    “ Hey, monkey!” he demanded, his voice authoritative, demanding to be
heard. “Stop harassing the poor lady and go back to your trainer.
Now.”
    Pei Pei freed my eyes and sat up on my
head on full alert, all of her attention directed towards Warren. She abandoned me
to scamper to the end of the beam, her head on one side, observing
the firefighter on the ladder with curiosity. I wasted no time to
scoot to the end of the beam on my tummy to join her.
    “ Good work, Tilly,” soothed Warren. “Now
comes the tricky bit. You need to reach your left foot down to me
and I’ll help it to the ladder, so come as close to the end of the
beam as you can.”
    As Pei Pei refused to budge, I
wasn’ t able to move
right to the end, forced instead to stretch one leg out towards the
ladder from where I was. Warren clasped my calf and guided my foot
to a rung higher than the one on which he currently stood. I spent
an uncomfortable minute or so split, with one leg straining to
touch the rung, the other still wrapped around the beam.
    “ You’re doing great,” Warren said when my
foot secured its position on the rung. He spoke in such a warm,
comforting voice, I wondered if he was the