Garden Tales #3: The Lime Monkey

Akihiko, our brave little lime monkey.

"Could someone help me pick some limes?" Mitsuha said one afternoon. "I want to make lime pie."

"Oh but do we have limes?" asked one of the girls. They all looked expectantly at Mitsuha, ever the bookworm brimming with encyclopedic knowledge, and the most skilled cook in the Yotsuba clan.

"Why of course! I meant the calamansi shrub that's growing by the side wall," she replied.

A few of them dutifully went out into the garden to look for the said shrub.

Makoto found it first. "Here it is!" she called.

But she was too short to reach even the lowest hanging fruit. Straining for it, she cried out, "I can't reach it!" She jumped, as high as she could go, reaching skyward for that one single lime.

Shion giggled and quipped, "Oh dear, all this effort.... Too bad it isn't a big juicy delicious-looking bunch of grapes!"

Makoto frowned, "Well, though these are sour, I am not a fox." All the girls burst into giggles, and Makoto herself laughed, being such a good-natured girl.

Each of the girls had a go, but all found that they were all too short. "It would seem like we have to climb this shrub," Shion said.

Can't...reach...it!

"This shrub? This isn't a shrub, it's a bloody tree!" Makoto grumbled. Indeed, shrubs to us humans are very much like trees to the little ones. One wonders what trees to humans must seem like to these dear little ones. Nonetheless, she arranged her skirts, readying herself to climb it.

Just then, brave little Akihiko stopped her. "You'll ruin your lovely dress, and Mommy will be upset. I think your Mommy Casey would too, since she made your dress." He pulled her away and said he would give it a go.

All the girls looked at him a little sceptically. After all, Akihiko was a little shorter than some of them (as Ella and Mitsuha pointed out before) and a little more slight in body build than some of them.

He brushed their concerns and dubious expressions away, confident of his plan and tree-climbing skills. Slowly and carefully, he clambered onto the nearest hanging pot of herbs.

Whatever is he doing? The girls thought.

And with a shimmy, he got hold of the strings of the hanging pot. Upwards he climbed, and reached out towards the closest branch of limes. He quickly picked off two juicy-looking ones and dropped them into Makoto's waiting arms below.

"These are like the size of melons!" cried Makoto, as she danced a little happy jig.

"Oh! Bravo! What a smart move!" the girls cheered. "Akihiko, you're our very own lime monkey!"

With arms around him and much back-slapping, the whole lot ran back into the house with the limes in tow. Lime pie for everyone!