The pounding ended. There was silence ... a longsilence.
Jack opened his eyes. He peeked around the tree.
The silverback was sitting on the ground. His lipswere curved in a smile. He looked pleased withhimself.
Was his whole act a fake? Jack wondered.
Jack didn't know whether to be scared or to laugh.
The only thing he did know was he still had to get toAnnie!
Jack pulled out the research book. He found thegorilla chapter again. He read:
To safely get close to gorillas in the wild, it's wiseto act like a gorilla yourself. Crouch down and rest onyour knuckles like a gorilla. Keep your head downand act friendly!
Jack packed up his research book. He put his packon his back. Then he went down on his knees.
Jack took a deep breath. He smiled a friendly smile.
Pressing down on his knuckles, he moved out frombehind the tree. His fingers hurt as he walked onthem.
The silverback grunted.
Jack didn't look up. He kept smiling a friendly smileas he crawled through the brush toward the clearing.
When he got to the edge of the clearing he glancedback. The giant gorilla was folloing him. He wasfrowning but he didn't seem about to attack.
Jack kept going. He moved into the clearing. Thenhe stopped.
More gorillas were waking up. A large gorillahugged Bu-bu as if to comfort her.
When Bu-bu saw Jack, she screeched joyfully.
All the other gorillas turned to look at him. Theymade nervous sounds.
Jack's heart pounded. But he just smiled his friendlysmile and kept crawling. He crawled around thegorillas and over to Annie.
"Wake up!" he said, shaking her.
Annie yawned, then opened her eyes.
"Oh, hi!" she said.
"Are you okay?" asked Jack.
"Sure," she said. She sat up and looked around. Shegasped.
The gorillas were staring at Jack and Annie withbright, darting eyes. The silver-back stared thehardest.
"Oh, wow!" said Annie. A joyful smile crossed herface. "Good morning, gorillas!" |