Befriended

I had not intended to befriend you, but you looked younger than you were: a shy child with an infectious grin. What could it hurt to smile back at you? Until then, I had kept pretty much to myself. Seeking solace from heartache, it sufficed me to be alone in the rainforest. My task was to investigate the survival of an endangered species, a group of monkeys, which lived in a forest remnant. How did the group sustain itself in such depleted circumstances? Single-minded pursuit of the answer to this question was meant to sustain me during my exile.