Tua and the Elephant

Tua and the Elephant by R. P. Harris

Book: Tua and the Elephant by R. P. Harris Read Free Book Online
Authors: R. P. Harris
Tags: Ages 8 & Up
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him. He had round brown eyes like polished teak, and a pointy nose and ears. He was wearing a fuzzy brown sweater and had a long black leather coat draped over his shoulders. The little man blinked his eyes,threw open his coat, dropped from the branch above, and swooped into the air on a five-foot wingspan. Then the entire banyan tree seemed to come apart as the air filled with the flapping wings and squeaking cries of a hundred flying foxes.
    Shaking like a kitten, Nang crawled along on all fours, wrapped his arms and legs around the thick bough, whispered a chant, and pinched his eyes closed. Seeing the elephant quit the chase, Nak quickly climbed to the lowest-hanging branch. He was about to drop to the ground when the snapping jaws and bloodcurdling howls of the sanctuary dogs sent him scampering up the tree again.

    Stuffed inside the sidecar, Tua wriggled under the blanket. “Hmm-hmm-hmm? Hmm!”
    She caught her breath as a long arm reached out of the dark and drew back the cover.
    “Hmmmmm!” she squirmed.
    “Tua?” Kanchanok gently pulled the tape off her mouth. “What happened?”
    “Kanchanok,” Tua said with her first big breath. “Where’s Pohn-Pohn?”
    Pohn-Pohn reached over Kanchanok’s shoulder, inspected Tua from the top of her head to the soles of her bare feet, slipped her trunk under her back, lifted her out of the sidecar, and sat her standing on the ground.
    “Pohn-Pohn,” she gasped. “I knew you would come—but the mahouts, Kanchanok! They’re getting away!”
    “Don’t worry about them.” Kanchanok began unwinding the tape from around Tua’s body. “They’re up a tree and won’t be coming down again anytime soon if Fudge, Shadow, and Peppy have anything to say about it.”
    “Thank you for saving me, Pohn-Pohn.” Tua stretched on tiptoes and touched her forehead to the base of Pohn-Pohn’s trunk.

    Nak was led away to a police car in handcuffs, but Nang, frozen with fear, couldn’t be coaxed down from the tree. Two policemen climbed up and pried him loose, tied a rope around his waist, and lowered him through the branches while the volunteers and staff covered him with their flashlights.
    “I’m not a kidnapper,” he began confessing before his feet touched the ground. “It was him,” he pointed an accusing finger at Nak. “He made me do it.”



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
A New Beginning
    The sun rose at last, chasing away the shadows, rousing the birds to song, and warming the wings of drowsy insects. Flowers lifted their faces, turned down their collars, and spread out their arms to greet the morning light.
    “I’m feeling hungry, Pohn-Pohn,” Tua said, responding to her rumbling stomach. She stretched and yawned. “How about you?”
    Pohn-Pohn didn’t need convincing. She lifted Tua to her feet and steered her toward the feeding platform. When they came upon Mae Noi sitting on a log under her floppy hat, Tua sat down beside her. She was watching an old man leaning on a stick atthe edge of the pasture. He beckoned Pohn-Pohn to come to him, pawing the air with a gnarled hand.
    “Who is that man?” Tua asked Mae Noi.
    “That’s Ek, the shaman. He lives deep in the forest and is as shy around people as a mouse deer. But because there are so few elephants living in the wild anymore, he must come to the sanctuary to talk to them.”
    “He talks to the elephants?” Tua gasped.
    “Why does that surprise you? Don’t you talk to Pohn-Pohn?”
    “Yes, but …”
    “How do you talk to her?” Mae Noi asked.
    “I don’t know. I just do.”
    “You speak to her with your heart, Tua, the same way she speaks to you. And you speak with your eyes, the tone of your voice, and the touch of your hand. The language of the heart is a tongue all of us would understand if we only took the time to learn it. And you, my little Tua, have a very big heart indeed.”
    “I do?”
    “I’ve never seen one bigger.”
    They watched the old man talking to Pohn-Pohn and drawing his hand

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