Kari the Elephant

Kari the elephant was 5 months old even though he was provided to me to be taken care of. I was nine years old then. We grew collectively. That is in all probability why I never ever located out how tall he was. Kari necessary forty pounds of twigs a day to chew and play with.

Every single day I applied to take him into the river in the morning for his bath. He would ride on the sandbank when I rubbed him with the clean sands of the river for an hour. Immediately after that he would lie in the water. He would squeal with pleasure as I rubbed water down his back. Then I would take him by the ear mainly because that is the easiest way to lead an elephant. As a result I left him in the fringe of the jungle, when I went into the forest to get some twigs for his meals. It was not an uncomplicated job to get twigs and saplings for Kari.

One particular day I was gathering some twigs and I heard Kari calling me. I believed somebody was hurting him, so I come down from the tree and ran rapid to the edge of the forest. I could not see Kari. Whilst I went close to the edge of the water I saw anything black struggling on the surface. Even though it rose larger I saw it was Kari. I believed he was drowning! But I quickly saw his back rise above the water and he started to struggle up to the shore. He then pushed me into the water and as I fell into the stream, I saw a boy lying flat at the bottom of the river. Whilst I came to the surface of the water to take a breath, Kari was standing on the bank, his trunk stretched out like a hand waiting. I went down once again and pulled the body of the surface. Kari helped me to pull him onto the shore.

Abruptly I slipped and sank back to the bottom of the river. As I struggled up once again with my eyes tightly shut, I felt anything like a rope about my neck. This frightened me. I believed it was a water snake. But the trumpeting sound I heard, told me it was Kari. The boy lay stretched on the ground and I recognized him as a boy from my village. He had gone to bathe in the river and had swum also far out.

I place his face down on the sand and Kari place his trunk about his waist and lifted it gently up and down. Immediately after Kari did this 3 or 4 instances, water started to come out of the boy's mouth. I rubbed his hands and feet. The boy gradually began breathing once again. Kari was the finest pal I ever had.

Smuthu Samy