Chapter 1

Evelyn Tanner tied another microphone to a tree then stepped back to admire her work. Working for more than five minutes at a time caused her to sweat profusely in the tropical heat and she pushed a lock of lank black hair from her face.

The bent fronds and stripped leaves indicated this was a familiar route for the gorillas. Evelyn hoped with the microphones in place she would be able to get more detail on what kind of distances they were covering in a day.

She was just about to head back to the camp when she heard the approach of the gorillas. The sounds they made were unmistakable. She had been at this particular site near the Rwandan border for 4 months and in that time, had been accepted by the tribe as one of them. The group consisted of one Alpha male, two Beta males, and four females with one baby each. Following the methods used by Dian Fosse in her study of 'Gorillas in the Mist', Evelyn had attempted to ingratiate herself into the group by copying the actions of the gorillas and even eating the food they ate (the live bugs were the worst).

Now, she felt she had their complete trust. When she entered their group, or they came across her, like now, they accepted her immediately. She wasn't sure of her status in the group, but neither the males nor females seemed to see her as a rival. The most rewarding experience so far was when the Alpha male, Barney, she called him, had allowed her to groom him.

She stood casually in the trail as the gorillas emerged from the trees. The Alpha male gave his signal to the others that this would be a stop for food. 'Does he think that is why I am here?', wondered Evelyn. She hunched down and, carefully avoiding eye contact, pretended to be looking for bugs.

The alpha male coming closer rewarded her. 'Maybe he thinks I've found a good spot', thought Evelyn rapidly. She felt the gorillas arm come to rest lightly on her back. This was behaviour she had not witnessed in all her time with the gorillas and wondered what it signified. Barney was very strong and powerful; probably he could break her back with one blow. Her heart started to beat rapidly as it always did when she discovered new behaviours.

Barney pulled her towards him, away from her 'food'. She toppled against him and found herself pinned under his huge arm. With his other hand he started to paw at her jacket. Evelyn was unsure what he was trying to indicate or trying to do. She went through her repertoire of gorilla actions but none seemed to satisfy Barney. She had some shiny buttons on her jacket where Barney was pawing, so she ripped them off & handed them to him - this didn't seem to satisfy him and after tasting them with his tongue he simply swallowed them. Now her bush jacket was hanging open; Barney's hand went inside the flaps and he seemed to Evelyn to be trying to remove it. She attempted to remove it herself and Barney eased up the pressure sufficiently to allow her to do it. She handed him the jacket, again, eyes averted, but he simply sniffed it and threw it away. 'What the hell does he want?', thought Evelyn, wracking her brains Barney continued pawing at her shirt so she undid the buttons on that too until her bare midriff was exposed. This seemed to satisfy Barney. He grunted and sniffed at her bare, sweating skin, even tasting it with his rough tongue. Evelyn was very excited - this was fascinating and she couldn't wait to see what he would do next, she tried to remember everything for her journal, she wished she could whisper to her memo but it had been in one of her jacket pockets. Barney moved his head higher and sniffed and touched her breasts gently. Evelyn suddenly realised he probably was trying to work out what sex she was. She grunted gently to him, like the females did to acknowledge him and unhooked her bra strap to let her breasts swing free. Evelyn's breasts weren't particularly large, but they were rounder and fuller than the females in the tribe. Barney was certainly interested, he rubbed them gently with the back of his knuckle, lifting them and letting them fall. Evelyn held her breath as he did it. He seemed unsatisfied though, and started pawing again, this time between her legs.

Evelyn's hypothesis was that despite the evidence of her breasts, Barney was still unsure about her sex and needed more confirmation. She decided that probably the easiest way out of this was to show Barney her genitalia. Despite his arm still pinning her she was able to kick off her boots with her feet and ease down the jungle pants she was wearing. She performed the action slowly so as not to frighten Barney into thinking she was peeling her skin. The gorilla looked on with curiosity. When she had manage to get her pants off, it was a simple matter of slipping her panties down to let the gorilla see her. She opened her legs to allow Barney to see that she had no penis. Of course, her genitalia was nothing like that of a true female gorilla's. Hers was much smaller and the lips less pronounced. She wondered if this was why Barney still seemed confused.