Whistling for the Elephants (29 page)

The
other elephant was smaller. A lot smaller. Maybe three foot tall and just a few
months old. I couldn’t tell. I mean, baby or not, she still must have weighed
two hundred pounds. She was just as beautiful but maybe a little fatter. The
mini-Jumbo was covered in soft baby fuzz and had a hunched, shuffling gait. Her
skin was really too big for her body. She looked as though she had been dressed
in an oversize grey Babygro. It bagged and sagged around her haunches. The baby
was less delicate in her movements. She thumped out of the truck, treading on
and tripping over her trunk. Although the two had made the journey together she
hurried to greet Artemesia. The baby put down her head as she ran to the larger
elephant and they both began to make low rumbles at each other. They gently
used the tips of their trunks to snake over each other’s heads, fondling,
feeling and smelling tenderly. Then the baby snuggled close to her mother, put
her trunk in her mouth and sucked at it like a baby with a thumb. She stood
under the protective umbrella of Artemesia’s great body — like a child hiding
in Mother’s skirts. I had never seen such open affection.

‘You
signing for these?’ The delivery man thrust a clipboard at me.

‘I
shouldn’t really…’

‘It’s
late. You work here?’

‘Sort
of.’

The man
was getting irritable. He still had an ostrich to get to New Jersey. ‘Come on,
son, just sign.’ So I did. Son, I quite liked that. The man handed me a
delivery note and he and his friends pushed off in the truck. I watched them
go. It was a little daunting. I had only been going home and suddenly I had
taken charge of two elephants. I looked at them. I needed to get Miss Strange,
or maybe not her as she was drunk. Maybe Helen, or maybe not her as she was
busy. I needed to do something. Artemesia and child looked at me.

‘Stay,’
I said with as much authority as I could muster. I raised my right hand to
emphasize the order and turned back to the house. I walked off purposefully but
when I turned to look, Artemesia and her child were right behind me. So much
for me being in charge. We got to the big lawn and I didn’t know what to do
next. The elephants seemed quite happy to let me decide. I didn’t feel I could
leave them so I threw a stone at the window and Miss Strange appeared. We must
have been a curious sight. A small kid in shorts standing between two giants
fresh from the circus.

Miss
Strange and Cosmos came out. They weren’t walking too straight. Sweetheart
followed a little behind. As they approached across the lawn Artemesia went a
little funny. She moved slightly toward Miss Strange and then she stopped.
Suddenly she began to make deep rumbling noises in her chest. Then she lifted
her trunk and gave a vast trumpeting sound. She began to flap her ears, spin
and turn, and matter spilled out of her at every end. She peed and defecated
while tears seemed to stream down the side of her head. Miss Strange watched
and laughed. At last Artemesia calmed and walked on again. She reached out her
wet trunk and gently put it round Miss Strange’s shoulders. Miss Strange patted
it and smiled.

‘I’m
pleased to see you too, Artemesia.’

It was
a greeting of two old friends. The strangest greeting I had ever seen but
heartfelt none the less.

‘There’s
two, I’m afraid,’ I said.

‘I’m glad
to hear it. I thought my eyes had gone.’

I
handed Miss Strange the paperwork from the driver. She looked at it without
focusing and handed it on to Sweetheart. Miss Strange went back to stroking her
old friend. Sweetheart looked at the papers.

‘So, Artemesia,
you have a daughter.’ She turned to the slightly smaller creature. ‘Welcome…’
She checked for the name. ‘Betsy? Hmm, we’ll think about that. Now where the
hell are we going to put you?’

The
enclosure wasn’t ready. Wouldn’t be ready for at least another day. It was
Sweetheart who thought of the swimming pool. Miss Strange went kind of funny.
She was drunk so there was no reason in it.

‘We are
not using the pool. I am not going in there.’

‘It
would be perfect,’ argued Sweetheart. ‘They’ll be fine for the night. It’s
empty, it’s strong, we can wash it down easily.’

‘Forget
it.’

‘What
else do you suggest?’

The
argument was going strong when Helen drifted up from the field. She had a
strange faraway look in her eye and a small tear in her dress. The dress flowed
behind, loosening itself on her shoulders so that they stood out milky white in
the night sky. She smiled and ran with her arms outstretched toward the
elephants. When she reached Artemesia she hugged her.

‘They
need to go in the old pool,’ said Sweetheart, trying to get everyone shifted. ‘There
isn’t anywhere else.’

Helen
was not herself She didn’t look like herself and she sure didn’t act like it. ‘Come
on,’ she shouted. Helen never shouted and now she led the way, Pied-Piper-like,
turning to make us march to the old marble pool.

The
place had been shut up for years and the lights came on with fizzy reluctance
but it was perfect. There was no water now but the shallow steps down into the
basin made it easy to get the elephants in. The solid marble and mosaicked
walls would easily hold them until the enclosure was done. Miss Strange was
stiff as we moved to get Artemesia and Betsy happy.

‘Come
on,’ said Helen again.

‘I don’t
want to be in here. I don’t think they should be in here,’ replied Miss Strange.
She looked sweaty and tired, the alcohol beginning to wane.

Helen
continued to work with confidence. She and Cosmos got bales from the barn while
Sweetheart and I tried to find a drinking bucket. Miss Strange sat at the side
and watched. It was weird to see Helen take over. You would have thought that
these creatures were too big for a woman who lived in the land of the winged
insect.

Artemesia
and Betsy stood head to head in the middle of the empty pool while all the
activity went on around them. Occasionally they would reach their trunks to
each other’s mouth, then entwine them, sniffing each other’s face and body,
appearing to sample breath and saliva, then Artemesia would give a low rumble
and they would stand still again. Miss Strange sat on the side of the diving
board, looking down to where once the water had been.

‘They
never said anything about two. Did they say anything to you, Sugar?’ I shook
my head.

Helen
didn’t sit for a second. She was unstoppable. She shifted hay, pulled the hose
and gave it to Sappho to fill the bucket we’d found. Sweetheart went to check
on Perry in the house. When she came back Perry was awake and sitting up in her
arms. Aunt Bonnie, Judith and the goose drifted in behind.

‘Elephants!’
Perry cried at the sight of them. ‘Look, Great-Grandma, Aunt Bonnie, elephants!’
He jumped down and ran towards the steps.

‘Perry!’
Sweetheart called in panic.

‘It’s
okay,’ said Miss Strange. She had gone very quiet. The drink had left her
subdued. She picked Perry up and moved down the steps with him. She gave a
slight shudder and then moved toward the two new inmates.

‘I like
elephants,’ announced Perry, and reached out to hug Betsy, who seemed to hug
him back. ‘Why are they so wrinkled? Great-Grandma is wrinkled.’

Sweetheart
laughed. ‘So I am, thank you, Perry.’

‘It
helps them to keep cool,’ explained Miss Strange, stroking the gnarled but
delicate skin. ‘See, there’s more skin to get wet. The cracks hold on to the
water and keep it longer in the bright sun.’

‘Isn’t
it wonderful!’ Helen seemed almost intoxicated as she danced around the bottom
of the pool.

‘They
can’t really stay here,’ said Miss Strange. ‘I don’t think the enclosure will
hold both of them.’

Helen
jigged about. ‘Of course they can. Do you know, Perry, if it wasn’t for stupid
people then elephants would probably be the most successful species on earth.
They or their ancient relatives have lived everywhere from deserts to
rainforests to glaciers.’

‘They
can live here,’ agreed Perry. ‘Look at the ears, look how big they are!’ he
cried.

Helen
smiled and reached up to touch one. ‘You know, it is said that in Ethiopia the
elephants link themselves four or five together into a sort of raft and,
holding up their heads to serve as sails, are carried on the waves to the
better pastures of Arabia.’

Cosmos
left her hay preparations and jumped down beside Miss Strange. ‘Come on, Sugar,
Perry, Helen, hold my hand, let’s duck under them. It’s good luck. Come on,
Sweetheart.’

Sweetheart
laughed. ‘They’re too big for me.’

‘Nothing
is as big as it looks,’ cried Cosmos, trying to get all of us to join hands. ‘We
increase the size of things in our minds. I don’t believe it is as far to
Africa as we think it is.’

‘Yes,
come on.’ Helen and Cosmos were unstoppable. Helen grabbed Aunt Bonnie’s and
Sweetheart’s hands:

Cosmos
grabbed me and Miss Strange, who held on to Sappho. The two women got us in a
line all holding hands. Helen was leading, with Miss Strange and the orang at
the end. ‘Come on,’ called Helen, beginning to move us all, ducking under Artemesia
and then dancing round Betsy for good luck. Judith stood at the side. As we
passed her Miss Strange let go of Sappho and reached out her hand but Judith
looked away.

It was
late. Sweetheart went back to the house with Perry, Judith and Aunt Bonnie.
Judith was beginning to say that she ought to go home but she clearly had no
heart for it.

‘Shouldn’t
you go home, Sugar?’ Miss Strange asked. I didn’t say about Mother going. I
just shrugged and said, ‘I don’t want to.’

She
shrugged back. She didn’t ask about my family and I didn’t tell her. I didn’t
want to. We slept that night amongst the hay and the elephants. I dozed for a
while. Cosmos was whittling at a piece of wood and I slept to the steady sound
of her knife. When I awoke Miss Strange was sitting above the deep end looking
down at our new charges. Cosmos lay on her back staring at the ceiling. Her
whittling lay beside her. Helen slept on a hay bale, her arms and legs
outstretched like she was making angels in the snow. She smiled in her sleep. Artemesia
and Betsy slept side by side, standing up. The air was full of deep contented
breathing.

‘Both
female,’ said Miss Strange, looking at the elephants.

‘Yeah,
like not even a cute couple,’ agreed Cosmos. ‘Be no good in Siam. The men in
Siam would no more ride a female elephant than you’d get a guy to ride a donkey
in the Memorial Day Parade.’

‘I
think having two females is great,’ I said, feeling very defensive.

‘Sure.
It’s great,’ agreed Cosmos. ‘We’re not like, in Siam.’

I lay
down next to her and stared at the ceiling. A god on a snake stared down at me.

‘That’s
Vishnu,’ explained Cosmos. ‘Reclining on the Ananta-Sesha serpent as he floats
on the cosmic ocean. He is dreaming his cosmic dream. Every now and then the
world is destroyed and Vishnu must recreate it in a dream. See, from his navel
on a long-stemmed lotus is the god Brahma, the creator. It is his job to create
what Vishnu dreams — everything in the universe.’

‘Vishnu
has the great vision then he gets the builders over,’ chuckled Miss Strange.

Cosmos
was not distracted. ‘It is said that from the many petals and stamens of this
miraculous lotus the gods Vishnu, Siva, Brahma and Agni eventually created the
various castes or families of elephants, the celestial ancestors of Artemesia
and Betsy.’

Miss
Strange shook her head. ‘Betsy! What kind of a name is that?’

On the
walls a mosaic of mountains and trees spread up to the gods. ‘Look there,’
commanded Cosmos. ‘There, sheltered in the Himalayan Mountains, is the mythical
Himaphan forest, where many real and fabulous creatures including the elephants
live.’

It was
a dream world. We lay in a dream of elephants and mythical forests. This was
where I wanted to stay always.

‘Here,
Sugar,’ said Cosmos, ‘I made you this.’ She handed me the most perfect wood
carving of Betsy playing. ‘It’s a Shinto-baku — a tiny elephant kept by
believers near their bed to ward off nightmares.’

‘Harry
will close us down, Cosmos,’ said Miss Strange, quietly changing the subject. I
clutched my new power against evil.

‘No,’
Cosmos replied. ‘We have something he does not. We have the power of
concentrated calmness over unreason and brute force.’

‘What
does that mean?’ I asked.

Cosmos
looked at me and smiled. ‘Buddha had enemies. They sent wild Nalagiri elephants
to trample him to death, but Buddha subdued their ferocity by the power of his
inner strength. The elephants came toward him and he simply raised his hand to
calm them. We shall do the same.’

And I
believed her.

Sweetheart
sat smiling at the elephants. ‘Just think what John Junior would have made of
this. What a show he would be planning.’

Miss
Strange laughed. ‘He could make a show out of a dead elephant. Culpeper-Meriweather’s
Great Combined Circus.