The labor was long and agonizing. Viola, the mother monkey, was extremely exhausted, her body trembling with the effort of each contraction. When the big newborn finally emerged, there was no relief—only a new wave of panic. The infant was large, limp, and silent. It did not cry. It did not move.
In a surge of primal instinct, Viola pulled the newborn to her chest, hugging it tightly. But the baby was not responding. Desperate, she began to groom it with frantic, rough licks, trying to stimulate life into its still form. She pulled its limbs, nuzzled its face, and made soft, pleading calls. With each passing second of silence, her exhaustion was replaced by a crushing sense of hopelessness. She was pulling and hugging a baby that felt like a heavy, lifeless weight. The reverse of what should have been—a joyful first embrace—was instead a scene of very pain and deepening dread.
The big newborn, possibly stunned from a difficult birth or deprived of oxygen, remained floppy and unresponsive. Viola’s movements became slower, her efforts more futile. She held the baby close, her own breath shallow, as if waiting for a miracle that wouldn’t come. The forest around them felt unbearably quiet.
Then, a tiny sputter. A minuscule cough. A gasp of air.
The newborn’s chest shuddered. A weak, gurgling cry, barely audible, escaped its lips. Viola froze, then redoubled her efforts, her grooming now focused and tender. She cleaned its nose and mouth with her tongue. The cry came again, stronger this time. The baby’s limbs twitched, then curled instinctively toward her warmth.
The hopelessness shattered. The very pain of the moment transformed into a fierce, trembling focus. The extremely exhausted mother, with her last reserves of strength, adjusted her grip. She helped the big newborn find her nipple. As it began to suckle weakly, Viola rested her head against it, her eyes closing not in defeat, but in a hard-won, vigilant peace. The reverse had been overcome. In the silent forest, the only sound was now the soft, rhythmic suckling of a baby fighting to live, held by a mother who refused to let go.
