Manuel was finishing his daily job as a garbage man. He only had to arrive at the local landfill to dump the last load on his garbage truck and he could go home. His wife had already told him she had made tamales, one of his favorite foods, so he was obviously very excited and desiring to be at home.
However, his plans took a drastic change when he got a phone call from Pablo, a coworker and former friend, who asked him to take his shift at night because he had a family emergency, his daughter had a high fever and he was taking her to the local hospital.
Manuel barely had time to say yes or no, much less to question about it. Of course, he can't trust Pablo, that why he was now a former friend. He tends to lie to everyone and, sometimes, stuff have disappeared around him, so he was even suspected of being a thief. But Pablo's wife was a good friend of his wife, so they ended up being godparents of Pablo's child.
Manuel sighed before he called his wife and told her about what happened. She understood and accepted they won't meet that night. After sending him a good night kiss, she told him she will make him a delicious brunch tomorrow. He smiled and continued working at the night shift.
It was five in the morning and Manuel was doing his last round. At least, working at night was more peaceful without traffic, he thought while he drives next to several restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. It was Wednesday, so he was a little bit surprised of seeing several people hanging around there. He didn't envy them because those people seemed like bums and drug addicts.
He was driving peacefully next to those buildings until he watched something that made him quite angry. Coming out from a nightclub, there was Pablo, completely drunk and walking shakily. He still had a bottle at hand which he occasionally took a sip. Manuel wanted to stop right there and gave him a beating, but he remembered that's how their friendship ended and nothing changed after that. He sighed, took a few pics and continued working.
While he was dumping his last load from his truck, he was still thinking about Pablo and how he can get some revenge for lying to him again. He was lost in his own thoughts when he noticed something odd and shiny falling among the garbage. He took a closer look and noticed it was an old music box. It seemed luxurious and he wondered if someone had dropped it by accident or it's just broken. He took it and started to inspect its condition.
Despite of a few scratches and dirt stains, it looked practically unused, he smiled. It could be a perfect gift for his wife or he can sell it and get some extra money to take her on a short vacation. While he thought about it, and old man arrived at the landfill. He usually came there at dawn, so Manuel didn't worry about him despite he didn't like the old man's attitude.
Still thinking about the music box in his hands, he started to turn the music box's crank and a beautiful circus melody started to sound. It was definitely for his wife, he thought, without realizing that it wasn't a normal music box.
If Manuel had looked back to where the old man was looking for something of value, he would have noticed that he was changing slowly but steadily. His decrepit skin was getting hairy, his ears were growing and his mouth was taking a simian shape. The old man didn't notice anything at first, until he suddenly fell down and took a simian position with his knuckles on the ground.
He was confused and tried to ask for help, but his voice had already turned into monkey sounds that he was desperately producing while his hands and feet changed shape. Unfortunately for him, Manuel was too focused on the music box melody that he ignored his pleas. He was crying while he watched a monkey tail coming out from above his butt, but he didn't know that something else was happening inside him.
His human mind was already fogging and his thoughts were becoming more and more simple animal thoughts. Those pleas quickly subsided down and where there was an old man before, now was an old monkey who was immediately taking off the dirty clothing that was constricting him. He began to move around, looking for something to eat. He took a few banana peels, some nuts and even a few bugs until he moved in front of Manuel.
When Manuel noticed the animal in front of him, he suddenly stopped playing the music box. He can't believe his eyes. What was doing a monkey in the landfill? Did it escaped from a circus? After watching all the Planet of the apes movies, he knew that those animals could become aggressive so, he immediately went inside his truck and left. The monkey followed him for a while until he was unfortunately hit by a trailer that didn't flinch for that.
That had been a weird day, Manuel thought. But he finally was going home. He smiled when he glanced at the music box next to him while he kept driving to meet his wife.