The storm was a wrathful giant, tearing at the jungle with wind and water. High in the canopy, the troop scrambled for cover. Little Kaya, a baby monkey barely a month old, clung desperately to her mother’s back as a brilliant, terrifying fork of light split the sky. There was a deafening crack, a searing flash of white-hot pain, and then nothingness.
The lightning strike had not been direct, but close enough. The branch they were on exploded. Kaya was thrown through the air like a discarded leaf, landing in a sodden, motionless heap amidst the roots of a great tree. The force of the blast had stunned her mother, who, in a panic, fled with the scrambling troop. To them, Kaya was gone, just another casualty of the jungle’s fury.
For hours, Kaya lay unconscious in the mud, her tiny body singed, her breathing shallow. The cold rain washed over her, and the forest began to forget her. But one heart had not. Her mother, Sari, once her senses returned, felt a gnawing emptiness, a primal pull that overrode her fear. Ignoring the safety of the troop, she bravely turned back, navigating the storm-ravaged canopy, her calls growing more desperate.
She found Kaya just as dawn broke. The little one was cold, barely breathing, and crusted with mud. A lesser instinct might have deemed her lost. But Sari’s love was a force stronger than lightning. Gently, she scooped the limp infant into her arms. She spent hours licking the mud and ash from Kaya’s fur, stimulating her circulation with her tongue. She mashed soft figs and tenderly fed her, drop by precious drop.
For two days, Sari never left her side, cradling Kaya against her warmth, grooming her relentlessly, and fending off curious predators with fierce snarls. Slowly, under this unwavering torrent of love, a spark returned to Kaya’s eyes. A weak hand flexed, then gripped her mother’s fur. A soft, questioning sound escaped her lips.
She had been struck by lightning and left for dead by the world. But she was not dead, for her mother’s love was a shelter no storm could destroy. In the warm, relentless safety of that love, Kaya began to live again.
