A place that belonged to a small gorilla with dark eyes and a small hand wrapped around my finger.
Then, one morning, I received a phone call.
A wildlife sanctuary in Washington State contacted me.
They had a silverback gorilla named Kito.
The age matched.
The story made sense.
And they believed there was a chance…
a very slim chance…
that it was the same animal I had raised decades earlier.
I booked the flight immediately.
But the director of the sanctuary warned me.
« Michael, gorillas have incredible memories, but thirty-two years is a very long time. »
« I know, » I replied.
« But I have to try. »
Now I stood inside the sanctuary.
Cameras surrounded me.
Staff members watched nervously.
Everyone wanted to know the same thing.
Would Kito remember?
The guard slowly opened the gate.
« Walk slowly, » she whispered.
I went in.
He was there.
A silverback giant sitting under a tree.
Nothing like the tiny baby I remembered.
He was powerful.
Older.
A leader.
A completely different animal.
I stopped about six meters away.
My heart was beating so hard I could barely breathe.
Then I did something I hadn’t done in over three decades.
I did the sound.
The same little whistling sound.
The same signal I used every day when he was a baby.
For several seconds…
Nothing happened.
Kito didn’t move.
The guard next to me lowered her eyes, preparing to comfort me.
Perhaps she already knew what I was afraid to accept.
Perhaps thirty-two years was simply too long.
Then, suddenly…
Kito slowly turned his head.
Her eyes fixed on mine.
And the expression on his face changed.
The entire sanctuary fell silent.
Because the gorilla hadn’t seen me since he was a baby…
stood up.
And started walking towards me.
Quickly.
Too fast.
The staff members immediately grabbed their radios.
No one knew if it was a reunion…
or the biggest mistake we’ve ever made.
But then Kito stopped right in front of me.
And what he did next made everyone present forget how to breathe.
Kito was standing a few centimeters away from me.
Close enough for me to feel his breath.
Close enough for me to see the small scar above her eye.
A scar that he didn’t have the last time I held him.
For a terrifying moment, neither of us moved.
Then something happened that I will never forget.
Kito slowly raised his enormous hand.
The same hand that was now strong enough to move branches and protect his troop.
And he gently touched my face.
Exactly as he did when he was a baby.
I collapsed.
Thirty-two years of pretending I was fine vanished in a single second.
I fell to my knees.
« Kito… »
My voice broke.
» I am here. «
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