Free Ralph!: An Evolutionary Fable

Tanzar of the Chimpanzees has returned from the jungle with a message from our hairy cousins: human evolution isn't finished yet, and it's time for our next step!
Ralph is the stage name of Kumbu, a chimpanzee who was kidnapped in infancy and trained to perform in a circus. As his debut performance approaches, primatology professor Dr. Jane Keller mounts a campaign to return Ralph to the wild. Meanwhile, an aging small-town janitor named Wilbur Trimble is fulfilling his lifelong dream of an African safari when he gets lost in the jungle and saved by a band of chimpanzees. When the chimps discover that he has the ability to communicate telepathically, as they do, they commission him to rescue a lost little one . . . named Kumbu.
As the story builds to a climax on opening day of the circus, the chimpanzees have much to teach Wilbur about ecological reality and the spiritual path of animals, known in human language as evolution.

Stephen Wing gave up a 12-year hitchhiking career to marry and settle in Atlanta. He now works as recycling coordinator at New Leaf Distributing Co. He is the author of two books of poetry and several dozen essays on spiritual and environmental topics. In 2006 he was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalized with a rare reaction to chemotherapy. While in the hospital, under the influence of a life-threatening fever, he conceived the story that became Free Ralph! He considers it a gift of cancer, and credits it with helping him survive his ordeal.