The forest around Angkor Wat is usually loud at dawn. Birds call to one another, leaves shift as families wake, and young monkeys tumble through the trees. But that morning felt different. Too still. Too quiet.
Bruno was sitting alone at the base of a fig tree, his tiny hands wrapped tightly around nothing at all.
He couldn’t have been more than a few days old. His eyes were open, but unfocused, scanning the ground as if waiting for something familiar to return. Every few moments, he made a soft sound—not a cry, just a question. The kind a newborn makes when the world doesn’t yet make sense.
No mother came back.
In the Angkor forest, abandonment doesn’t announce itself. It happens quietly, often for reasons no one witnesses. A disrupted group. A sudden conflict. A moment when survival forces impossible choices.
Bruno waited anyway.
As the sun rose higher, the Sovana Group began to move through the area. Adult monkeys paused. Some glanced at him, others passed by. A young female approached once, sniffed the air, then retreated. Bruno remained where he was placed, as if staying still might bring his mother back faster.
By midmorning, his small body began to tremble. Without warmth, without milk, without guidance, the forest that raises so many also becomes overwhelming.
Eventually, human observers noticed what the forest already knew: Bruno was alone.
What followed wasn’t rescue in a dramatic sense. There was no rush, no noise. Just patience. Care. Watching closely. Waiting to see if nature would correct itself.
It didn’t.
Bruno was gently moved to safety, his tiny fingers still curling instinctively, still reaching. In the days that followed, he learned a new rhythm—one shaped by careful hands and quiet routines. He slept curled against warmth. He learned to drink. He learned that not every absence lasts forever.
Still, there are moments when Bruno pauses. When the forest sound changes, or when another monkey’s call drifts through the trees. In those moments, he looks up, alert, hopeful.
Some beginnings are loud. Others start with silence.
Bruno’s story began with waiting.
