One day I went to a carnival and over there I went to watch a magic show. The magician called me for a magic trick but before that I said to the magician, “I will only participate in the magic if you tell me a magic spell.”

The magician said, “Okay, I will tell you but after the show.”

And when the show got over I asked the magician to tell me the spell, so he wrote it on a piece of paper and gave it to me. The next day, I and my family members went to the zoo. As I was passing by the cage of monkeys, I thought that I should try the spell on a monkey.

So I took out the paper and spoke the magical spell, “Hokus pokus melacus pous abre de dabre hickory!”

And suddenly a monkey came out of the cage and said to me, “Yes ma’am. Tell me what can Tin Min do for you?”

I was a bit scared but happy also to find that the spell did work. I asked him, “Who’s Tin Min?”

One day I went to the supermarket to buy things. I kept asking the monkey to keep everything inside the trolley and he did it sitting inside my bag. But suddenly he jumped out of my bag and sat on a lady’s head

“I am Tin Min and I am your servant!” the monkey replied. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Excitedly I took him home with me.

At dinner time, bitter gourd was cooked and I was not in the mood to eat it, so I asked the monkey, “Hey, you little monkey! Can you bring me a pizza?”

“Yes ma’am! Right away!” the monkey said and was gone! It took him only 50 seconds to bring the pizza. As I was starving, I ate it quickly. Later on I wondered where he got the pizza from? So I asked him, “Tin Min from where did you get the pizza? Did you steal it?”

The monkey was a little bit confused, but then he asked me, “Ma’am, did you give me money?”

I said, “No!”

“Then how will I have it?” the monkey said.

I knew then that he had stolen it, so I directly asked, “You can steal also?”

The monkey replied, “Yes!”

I became nervous hearing this as this could get us in trouble.

One day I went to the supermarket to buy things. I kept asking the monkey to keep everything inside the trolley and he did it while sitting inside my bag. But suddenly he jumped out of my bag and sat on a lady’s head.

The lady started to shout, “Help! Help! Somebody help!”

Many people gathered around her, including the guards and all the staff. They all tried to get the monkey down but he wouldn’t leave her. Then I went over there and said, “Tin Min get down from the lady’s head!”

I was his boss, so he listened to me only and came down from her head quietly. After we were alone, I asked him why he was showing such ill-mannered behaviour. He told me that he was feeling very hungry and the lady had lice in her hair so he started gobbling them! Hearing this I wanted to puke but I controlled myself and bought the monkey some bananas which he quickly ate.

After a few days the monkey was no more my servant because the spell was temporary, so I took him back to the zoo and quietly put him inside his cage without telling anybody.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 7th, 2015