Torres had been waiting all morning. He brushed his fur—twice. He polished his favorite banana necklace. He even practiced his greeting in front of a puddle:
“HEY MIKO! Guess whooo’s back?”
“MIKOOO! Your favorite monkey has ARRIVED!”
“BROOOO! Prepare for the legendary BOOM-BOOM!”
None of his rehearsed greetings felt perfect, but Torres didn’t mind. He was excited, and excitement always found a way out of him… usually in the form of something loud, chaotic, or, as Torres called it, “boom-boom energy.”
As he swung through the forest toward their usual meeting spot—the big mango tree—Torres already felt the boom-boom building inside him. His tail twitched. His feet tapped. His whole body buzzed like a shaken soda bottle.
“I gotta stay calm,” he told himself.
But Torres and calmness never stayed in the same room for very long.
When he finally reached the big mango tree, he spotted Miko sitting on a branch, peacefully eating a mango slice. Miko was the complete opposite of Torres—cool, slow-moving, and usually silent until spoken to.
But when he saw Torres approaching at full speed, his eyes widened.
“Uh-oh,” Miko whispered.
Here comes the tornado.
Torres shot through the air like a furry missile.
“MIKOOOOOOO!” he shouted.
“TORREEEES—WAIT—!” Miko started.
Too late.
BOOM!
Torres landed right next to him, shaking the entire branch so hard that mangoes rained down like fruity hailstones. The impact echoed through the forest.
Miko blinked.
Torres grinned.
The forest squirrels peeked from behind leaves with terrified admiration.
“BRO, I MISSED YOU!” Torres shouted at a volume that could wake up napping crocodiles.
“I… can tell,” Miko said, dusting mango pulp from his fur. “You brought the boom-boom today, huh?”
Torres puffed up proudly. “Of course! The boom-boom never leaves me!”
They both burst into laughter. Even Miko—who usually laughed like a soft breeze—let out a loud giggle.
Torres immediately jumped into storytelling mode.
“You won’t BELIEVE what happened while you were gone! I almost became king of the banana depot! And then a parrot tried to race me! And THEN a coconut fell on my head and BOOM—my brain saw sparkles!”
Miko nodded slowly. “Yep. That sounds like your life.”
As Torres continued chattering, bouncing, spinning, flipping, and occasionally crashing into branches, Miko simply observed, amused.
He had missed this—Torres’ chaotic stories, his endless energy, and the way he turned a normal day into a jungle adventure.
At one point, Torres got so excited telling a story about a runaway pineapple that he accidentally launched himself off the branch.
“TORRES!” Miko shouted.
But Torres wasn’t falling—he was flying.
Or spinning.
Or something between the two.
“WOOOHOOO! BOOOOM-BOOOOM!” Torres yelled as he spiraled through the air, grabbing branches, flipping twice, bouncing off a vine, and somehow landing back next to Miko like nothing happened.
Miko stared at him. “How are you still alive?”
Torres shrugged. “Boom-boom magic!”
They spent the rest of the afternoon joking, racing, stealing mangoes from sleepy lizards, and laughing so hard that even the cranky old toucan complained about “too much happiness in one area.”
