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The Monkey on Lafayette Street

Are they any other sightings to corroborate this story?

The conversation was about Java programming. Then: “I knew I had to tell you something. I was on Lafayette south of Spring with Isidra [his 5 year old daughter]. We were on the way to the children's museum, then we come out of the subway and there was this man yelling monkey, monkey, monkey!

“A crazy guy.”

“I thought so. But after a few seconds, I looked where he was looking. And sure enough, on the roof of an apartment building, there was a monkey. Bigger than a baboon.”

“No.”

“It was running around on the roof and throwing stones.”

“Where did it get the stones?”

“I don't know. So a bunch of us gathered--”

“Bigger than a baboon?”

“Yes.”

“But not a gorilla.”

“Not that big.”

“A mandrill?”

“I don't know. It was a distance. But definitely a higher primate. A few of us gathered by this point, and man came by and said, ah, the monkey's out.

“This occurs regularly.”

“Apparently. And he pointed to a 4th-floor apartment with a big window and a rope leading to the roof. So the monkey can just climb up to the roof and back down whenever he wants.”

“That makes sense. Was Isidra just fascinated?”

“Well, you know, it's just a monkey. She wanted to hurry up and go to the children's museum.”


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About the author: I've been running this website from 1997. For a living I write stories and essays, program computers, edit things, and help people launch online publications. (LinkedIn). I wrote a novel. I was an editor at Harper's Magazine for five years; then I was a Contributing Editor; now I am a free agent. I was also on NPR's All Things Considered for a while. I still write for The Morning News, and some other places.

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