Twenty Nineteen

A story I wrote inspired by the Gorillaz' "19-2000".

“You can’t just go to the city, let alone a store yourself like the rest. Society doesn’t want us touching their product in case we are what they consider, infectious. Calls us animals.” Tyrhi’s mother scowled at her when she heard Tyrhi was going into the city incognito. Tyrhi was covered in clothing, from a hoodie with a long, draping hood to a bandana embedded with white decals and a paisley design. Her sunglasses shined like mirrors as to not show her misshapen pupils, and her feet covered with knee high socks and handcrafted wood clogs for shoes. “Those shoes are fine! Your grandmother made them for you before she passed. You wouldn’t want to disgrace your grandmother, would you?”

Tyrhi peered over her sunglasses to show oval shaped eyes colored a deep orange and fur all around her eyes. “Of course not, mom.” She pushed the glasses back over her eyes and threw a book bag that had been hanging on the coat rack next to the front door over her shoulder. “I’ve gotten all of these clothes without fail, why wouldn’t I be able to get shoes now?”

Her mother gave the look all mothers give their kids when they expect a bad decision. A doubtful, forced smile with piercing eye and a tilted head. Her short hair showed over her large ears and a long tail flailing back and forth behind her. “You’re getting excited about this!” Tyrhi said as she saw her mother’s tail swaying back and forth, and her mother dropped the protective parent façade.

“I was just like you back when I was a kid. Although then I was allowed to be in public, before that Primate sleeper cell went ballistic and the town freaked out. It was a simpler time. Then I would sneak out to go the movies. Now you have to sneak out just to buy shoes. You know girls your age do that often?”

“Yes, I have read the history books, Mom. Can I go now?”

“How are you hiding your tail?”

“In my pants leg. Keeping it close to my leg so people don’t think it’s something else.”

“A weapon?”

“Well, that, but… You could learn a thing or two from me too, Mom. I’ll be back soon.”

Tyrhi tightened the book bag on her back and opened the cheap, wooden front door.  Times were hard for the primates. A few decades back, certain intelligent primates reverted to their primal state and hurt multiple civilians, resulting in the government to restrict some primates from society. Tyrhi’s family was one of these groups of primates. Her father was one of the first primates to ‘go wild’, as the human’s called it, and assigned Tyrhi and her mother to an annexed house in their town of Ziluda. Very few primates were intelligent at the time, only in the three digit numbers; making ninety cases of these mishaps seem drastic. The government took the ninety suspects, including Tyrhi’s father, and they were never heard of again. No news on if they were killed, researched on, anything.

Tyrhi took interest in the humans once they took her father from her. She had only recently started going to town undercover to buy herself more popular clothes. No company wanted their products being endorsed by the primates, and would not cooperate with Tyrhi when asked to send her new pants, shirts, shoes. The only thing she was able to get from the public without sneaking around was a band who had put out their songs online in support of the primate’s struggle. Apez, a British band founded by a phat-cat primate before he himself succumbed to the primal state. She blared their music on her walk out of the fence where she had once cut open a hole to pass through the forced barrier between her home and the real world.

                How could they
                Placing them behind walls
                they’re just embracing nature
                Do they care at all?

Tyrhi lived on the outskirts of a small town that had just enough for what she was looking for. The streets were kept clean, but the place itself was filthy. Her mother had used an old cliché for ZiShe read some of the things in the windows of the businesses. “Keep monkeys out!” “No fur allowed here!” “No shirt, no shoes, no tails, no problem!” Tyrhi stopped when she saw the store she found solace in Ziluda. A contemporary store with clothes, knick knacks, music, toys, and many other things teenagers liked to gawk over. Her eyes crossed with the album form Apez. It’s The Music That We Choose. She saw in the window opposite to the album the shoes she had been eyeing for weeks now. She smiled through her bandana and went inside the store.

It was dead. No teens roaming around the store, no music playing, no colorful lights filling the aisles with emphasis on the popular items. An elderly man stood at the counter, reading the paper with bifocals and a striped shirt on, suspenders keeping his pants up and a balding head up top. He looked over the paper to see Tyrhi.

“Ah, the young reckless primate returns.” The elderly man belted out across the store. He placed the paper folded on the counter and went to the shoe wall, where he met Tyrhi at as well. “You still want those Nikes? New ones have come in since last week.” The man pointed to the top shelf and there sat the pair of simple, black and yellow Nike shoes sat. He tail appeared from her back end and her eyes shined through the sunglasses. “But, here are the new ones.” He revealed the same shoes form a box he carried over while she was looking at the top shelf pair, and the shoes were almost the same, despite the colors being inverted and these having a glistening shine to them. Tyrhi looked back and forth, contemplating which to buy. The old pair she had her eyes on would be bought now, and she could finally walk around with brand-name shoes over the brown clogs she currently had. Yet the new ones had a fresh shine, but would take a few more weeks to save up the money.

“Get the cool shoeshine.”

The voice peered from the front door, preceding a chime from the door being closed. The girl walked closer to Tyrhi and the old man, a small lollipop in her mouth and the pair of shoes the man held in his box.

“Oh, Klara, I didn’t expect you for another half hour.” The old man ached as he closed the box to the shoes. Klara got closer to Tyrhi and took the sucker out of her mouth. Her lips were red from lipstick and the candy, and outfit was a mix of provocative and street thug. She circled around Tyrhi once to look at her getup, as well as the now droopy tail hanging from her pants.

“So you’re a primate?” She placed the sucker in her mouth, and then took it back out after a quick lick. “Don’t worry,” she winked, “I won’t tell anyone. And I say get the cool shined shoes. Save your money.”

“But, Klara, I’ve been waiting for her to buy those shoes for weeks? I don’t like you changing the mind of my regulars.”

“She’s one of your regulars? I’ve never seen her before.”

“She comes in only on Fridays after everyone goes to bed. That new curfew for primate attacks really cuts into my business hours. None of my fitting workers can man this post!” The old man replaced the lid on the shoebox and practically threw it back behind the counter.

“Woah now, Pernard. Don’t get out of hand.”

He angrily grabbed the ladder from the other side of the store and returned to the shelves, and then wearily climbed to the top. “Can someone hand me that box.”

Tyrhi quickly grabbed the box that Pernard threw to the counter and handed it up to him.

“Hey, I’m gunna take this troublemaker off of your hands, Pernard. If she’s a primate and out of her cage, she’s cool enough to hang around me.”

“Alright, Klara.” He hopped off of the ladder, now completely drenched in sweat, and returned to the seat behind the store’s counter. “You’re gonna have to help her back to her home. I usually do after hours.”

“Sounds good to me, old man.” She grabbed Tyrhi’s hand and quickly rushed out of the door, Tyrhi closely behind as Klara darted into the alley next to the store, looking every which way imaginable. She jumped up to release the fire escape, and then started to climb up the escape with Tyrhi sitting beneath her.

“You expect me to do that?”

“You’re a primate, aren’t you? Why not use that tail of yours?” Klara sat on the step at the bottom of the escape and pulled out a large yet handheld mechanism. She put her lips around it and then removed them, keeping her breath held tight. She then released a long cloud of smoke, releasing slightly colored vapor into the atmosphere. Tyrhi looked at her tail, slowly swaying back and forth, and wondered how she could make that thing wrap around a ladder, let alone pull herself up with it. She instead pulled over a nearby dumpster, closed its hinged caps, and climbed up with her hands and feet. She then sat next to Klara on the last step.

“I’m still not sure how this thing works. It’s like my brain doesn’t control it. Has a mind of its own.”

Klara laughed, vapor coming out of her mouth as if she were breathing fire like a humorous dragon. She covered her mouth, placed her vapor machine back in her bag, and brought out the pair of Black and yellow shoes that Klara had her eyes on.

“How did you �" These weren’t stolen, were they?”

“No, no of course not. I bought the pair about a month ago. I figured you could save your current money and buy the new ones.”

Tyrhi’s tail began to sway behind her once again. She took off the clogs her mother had her wear and put them in her bag. The bumblebee colored shoes were a tight fit, but just enough for Tyrhi’s feet. She attempted to tie them, and to Klara’s surprise tied them fairly well.

“So, life in the cage a hard one?”

“Nah, not when you have bolt cutters and not-so-observant guards. I’ve been sneaking out every Friday because most of the guards go out drinking.”

“So you live a life just like us. But behind that cage. What do you even do?”

“Listen to music and talk with people over my phone. That’s the only way some people will even come near me anymore.”

“Music? What do you listen to? Most aren’t letting primates listen to their new stuff.”

“A band called Apez. You want to listen?”

“Sure.”

Tyrhi handed Klara the right earbud from her headphones and pulled together to keep them from being restrained. She pulled off her hood, removed her bandana and placed her sunglasses on her hoodie’s head hole, revealing her fur, her beady eyes, her large ears, and her flat nose. Klara didn’t even give her a second look, and proceeded to crunch on the sucker while staring into the night sky. Tyrhi looked down at her new shoes, and then out at the town with orange lights shining off of wet streets. The bright white light from the moon shined down on Tyrhi and Klara, as they indulged in the song once more.

Because life for Apez and primates
should be the same through thick and thin
but if those affected returned to sanity
would they truly be free again?